


Curious Scars

by Amerna



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: BAMF Darcy Lewis, Canon-Typical Violence, Espionage, F/M, Memory Loss, On the Run, Pre-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Slow Burn, Woke Up Married, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-05 00:26:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 95,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12179412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amerna/pseuds/Amerna
Summary: Darcy Lewis’ first solo mission as a SHIELD agent was supposed to be easy: Get to Germany, retrieve the data, get out. With Captain America as backup nothing bad could happen, right? But when Steve and Darcy wake up two weeks later in a hospital in Brazil with no recollection of what happened, SHIELD ready to arrest them for going AWOL, and married to each other, things start to get weird. They struggle to piece together what happened to them: Where did they go? What did they do? Why can they not remember anything? And why on earth would they get married to each other?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by [this post by nessismore](http://nessismore.tumblr.com/post/133772786607/redhead4eyes-prompted-woke-up-married-there-are).
> 
> This story took me almost two years to complete and it has cost me. And by now I’m 99% sure that this is going to be my last multi chapter Steve/Darcy story. I’m not saying that there won’t be one shots (though not in this ‘verse), but I don’t think I’m going on another full-fledged Steve/Darcy adventure in the foreseeable future.
> 
> That being said: I plan on completing this story as long as I have internet access. It’s basically finished, but I still have to do some tweaking in the later chapters. I don’t plan to adhere to a strict posting schedule though, because there’s plenty of things going on in my RL and I don’t want to feel guilty for not updating and disappointing you guys on a particular day of the week.
> 
> This story is rated M for violence only. Unfortunately (?), I haven’t magically acquired the ability to write non-cringeworthy smut, so no smut it is.
> 
> Thanks to fiora_miriel, who was essential in the early formation stages of this story. She has since left fandom, but, in the early months of 2016, she was the one who regularly woke up to 19 or so messages from me in whatsapp, screaming about my new story.
> 
> Em_Jaye has been a tremendous help figuring stuff out while I was on the final stretch. I probably would’ve abandoned the story for good a few months ago without her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s some Portuguese in this story, the translation is from queenisabella789 at tumblr. You should be able to see the English translation when you hover over the Portuguese. Mobile users: You have to click on the text in order to see the translation.

### Chapter 1

Darcy wakes up with a splitting headache, her eyelids feeling like lead. She’s disoriented for a moment and then looks around. She sees the white walls, the bed, the beeping machinery around her and catches the all-encompassing smell of disinfectants.

She’s in a hospital.

She groans and falls back into the pillow, heavily. She botched her very first mission. Data retrieval. From a German office building with minimal security. With Captain America as backup. Easy as pie, right? And she failed it, is in a hospital even. SHIELD probably already fired her and if not that, they’ll probably transfer her to the secretarial pool, or paper archive duty, or something similar. Far away from anything exciting. Far away from ever seeing Captain America’s butt in his tight uniform again. She’ll never make it as a field agent, when she’d just had the feeling that she was finally getting the hang of that whole covert operative thing.

She takes a deep breath and immediately regrets it. There’s a sharp pain in her right side. She lifts her hospital gown to inspect her injuries and realises that her whole torso is bandaged. She has no recollection how that happened. As a matter of fact, she can’t remember anything that happened to her after she boarded the plane that was to bring her to Frankfurt.

There are two rings on her left finger she has never seen before. Really weird.

She pulls back her blanket and inspects her body for further injuries. There’s another wound, on her lower abdomen. It’s not bandaged and it itches. It has already begun to heal.

How long was she out that a wound – a stab wound by the looks of it – is already almost half-healed?

Her head is bandaged as well, with her right forehead and the back of her head feeling particularly sore. She must have been knocked out fairly bad.

Hopefully SHIELD’s healthcare will still cover her, she thinks absentmindedly.

At that moment a nurse steps into the room, smiling slightly. “Bom dia, senhora. Você acordou[ Translation ],” she says. She steps towards Darcy’s bed and looks at Darcy’s vital signs that are displayed on the monitor.

Darcy frowns at her. That definitely wasn’t German. It sounded like Portuguese, or a weird Spanish accent. What is going on?

“What, what time is it?” Darcy croaks.

The nurse smiles and hands her some water to drink. “It is 6:30am,” she answers in slightly accented English.

“And what day?”

“February 19,” the nurse answers.

Darcy’s mouth falls open. “What?” she manages to say.

“Today is February 19,” the nurse repeats, frowning slightly.

“I was out for two weeks?” Darcy squeaks.

The nurse looks at her, head tilted slightly. “No, you were admitted to the hospital yesterday.”

“And where is this hospital exactly?”

“Rio de Janeiro, Mrs Rogers.”

“Nonononononononono,” Darcy says, shaking her head and then thinks better of it when there’s the sharp pain again, “that can’t be. Yesterday was February 5th and I was to go to Germany.”

The nurse’s frown deepens. “Your concussion must be worse than we thought,” she says worriedly. “I am going to get a doctor and your husband. He’s awake and next door.”

“My what?”

~*~

Darcy received the summons early in the morning. She had finished basic training a few weeks ago and gone on several group missions that had all been successful. This was to be her first solo assignment. When she had received the memo that she was to report to a room at a designated time to be briefed about her first solo mission, Darcy had squealed in delight. She knew that she was slowly getting the hang of that whole secret agent thing – she might not be Black Widow material, but she would make a good agent at some point. She was sure of it.

Darcy arrived at the meeting room 10 minutes early. She wandered into the room, grinning like a lunatic, only to be confronted with Captain America. He was sitting in one of the office chairs, sketch book open on the table in front of him, humming slightly. His shield was casually leaning against one of the table legs. He was in full regalia, the blue stealth uniform SHIELD had outfitted him with roughly a year ago. Everybody at the DC office was deeply familiar with the blue stealth suit. And its history. And the man in it. The combination had 99% of the female agents and a good portion of the male agents drooling. When he heard her coming in, he looked up and grinned at her.

Darcy stopped short before she walked backwards out of the room to check that she had not mixed up the room numbers (she hadn’t). Then she checked her email to see if the meeting had been rescheduled to take place in another room (it hadn’t). For all intents and purposes, she was in the correct room. That didn’t explain why Captain America was there though.

The man was legendary. Everybody knew who he was. Meeting him was the SHIELD equivalent of a 5-year old meeting Santa. Not that meeting him was very likely for the majority of the agents. Captain Rogers was top brass. He did the high-risk, high-profile hush-hush ops that were need-to-know basis only. Nothing below level 7. Darcy was level 4 and only because she was friends with Thor and had some knowledge about Jane’s work that wasn’t public knowledge. Most junior field agents started on level 2. She wasn’t supposed to meet Captain America for another few years at least.

Maybe there had been some new information and her op had been upgraded, her involvement was no longer needed and then somebody had forgotten to inform her. That was the only explanation that made sense.

At that moment Agent Blake, who had set up the mission and was supposed to brief her and her supervising agent, an Agent Jefferson who had yet to appear, came around the corner and spotted her. Darcy breathed a sigh of relief. He would hopefully be able to clarify things.

“Agent Lewis,” he greeted her. “Why are you waiting in the hallway? Let’s go sit down.”

Well, so much for her theory that her op had been upgraded. “Um,” Darcy began, “there’s one problem.”

“Which would be?” Agent Blake asked, before stepping inside the room and then stopping short, too, at the sight of Captain America before him. It was good to know that even seasoned SHIELD operatives were still caught unaware by the First Avenger appearing right in front of them.

Agent Blake stared at Captain Rogers for a moment. “Captain,” he managed to say. “What an unexpected surprise.”

“Agent Blake,” the Captain said, standing up and shaking his hand. “Agent Lewis,” he nodded at her and Darcy idly wondered how he knew her name.

Agent Blake frowned at him. “Captain, can we help you?”

“I’m here for the mission briefing,” the Captain announced cheerfully.

Agent Blake’s mouth fell open for a second. “Why?”

“Because I’m Agent Lewis’ supervising agent for her first solo mission.”

“No way,” Darcy breathed in disbelief.

Agent Blake’s frown deepened. “I could have sworn that Agent Jefferson was on file when I set it up this morning.”

“He might’ve been,” the Captain said conversationally. “I think Agent Romanoff took care of the… bureaucratic details.”

“Agent Romanoff?” Agent Blake repeated uncomprehendingly.

“Yup, she kind of volunteered me for this mission. She would’ve gone herself but something came up and I’m her replacement.”

Agent Blake looked into the file in his hands for a moment, apparently to make sure that he had all the details right. “This is a simple data retrieval mission,” he started slowly.

“I know,” the Captain said.

“I wasn’t aware it needed Avengers involvement.”

“It doesn’t necessarily.”

Agent Blake stared at him. “I’m sure you have more important things to do,” he suggested.

“I’m on 72-hour leave after completing my latest mission,” the Captain explained. “I’ve done all my reports and all the paperwork and I’m volunteering my free time.”

“We can certainly find another replacement for Agent Romanoff. Somebody on Agent Jefferson’s level. This simple mission would just bore you,” Agent Blake clarified.

“I don’t mind at all.”

“Surely this is way below your pay grade,” Agent Blake attempted in a last-ditch effort.

“I like keeping in touch with SHIELD’s day-to-day activities,” the Captain said good-naturedly.

“Captain Rogers-” Agent Blake began.

“I’m volunteering,” Captain America interrupted him in a voice that brooked no opposition. “And I promised Natasha that I would do this. And you don’t want to be on her bad side. So, I’m going to be Agent Lewis’ supervising agent, no matter how much you try to persuade me otherwise, Agent Blake. Now that we’ve resolved that, can we please focus on the mission at hand?”

Agent Blake visibly fought with himself for a moment before accepting his fate. He motioned Darcy to sit down at the table, took a place himself and then slid two tablets over to her and Captain America to begin his presentation.

“The target is Thorsten Kiesewetter,” he began, a picture of the person appearing on the screen in front of Darcy, “an independent investment trader stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. The mission is simple: Break into his office and copy his files, also install a Trojan horse on his server so we can access it remotely.”

“Why?” Captain America inquired.

“We have reason to believe that his trades finance international terrorism – we need to find out if that’s really the case.”

“So,” Darcy said slowly, “I’m basically sent to steal his files and open the floodgates for SHIELD’s hacker division? Anything else?”

“No.” Agent Blake shook his head. “Your mission is retrieval only. You’re not to engage with the mark in any form. He’ll never know that you were there or that you obtained the data. Once we have it, we’ll analyse it and then decide what to do next.”

“Understood.” Darcy nodded slowly.

“Seems pretty straight forward,” the Captain agreed.

“Good, we don’t want to overwhelm you on your first solo mission, Agent Lewis,” Agent Blake explained. “The file I gave you includes all the information about his offices, his schedule in the next few days, the security in his offices and how his files are protected. You can familiarise yourself with it on the way to Germany. We tried hacking him remotely, but unfortunately his data protection proved to be too complex for that. So we’re sending somebody to infiltrate his server room.”

“Do I need to do my own hacking?” Darcy asked.

“No, you’ll be equipped with a program that should do it for you. We know about your skills, Agent Lewis, but in this case, you just need to find a USB port. This is just to test how you handle yourself in the field. Understood?”

Darcy nodded. “Yes.”

“Clandestine data retrieval is the top priority. Mr. Kiesewetter is not supposed to suspect anything,” Agent Blake stressed. “So don’t break cover under any circumstances. In the end, it needs to look like you were never there.”

Darcy nodded again and Agent Blake addressed Captain America. “As you can see, this really is a very simple standard mission for a rookie agent. This is your last chance to back out, Captain.”

“I’m doing this. It’s nice to go back to Germany when there’s no war to be fought and no aliens to arrest,” he grinned.

“Okay,” Agent Blake said. “You’re obviously Agent Lewis’ backup should anything out of the ordinary happen. Otherwise your role is to oversee only. You’ll have comm links and establish communication. Obviously, you can help with suggestions, but you will not actively engage in this mission.”

Captain Rogers nodded.

“If you actively engage without good cause,” Agent Blake continued, “Agent Lewis will have failed her first mission.”

“Understood.”

“You’ll find this in the files as well, but I can tell you that SHIELD has managed to hack to security system in the office building Mr. Kiesewetter is situated in, so you should have eyes on Agent Lewis at all times.”

“Good.”

“Afterwards you’ll erase all security footage. As I said: There will be no electronic trace of Agent Lewis ever being there. As her supervising agent you will be asked to give a formal assessment about Agent Lewis after she has successfully completed her mission. This will be added to her personnel file. Any further questions?” he asked both of them.

Both Darcy and Captain Rogers shook their heads no.

“Report to operations control for your equipment,” Agent Blake said, getting up. “Your flight will leave in 90 minutes. Good luck, Agent Lewis.”

~*~

She’d cut her hair to shoulder length and she’s now a platinum blonde.

What the actual fuck?

Also: she seems to be married to Captain freakin’ America.

Only he doesn’t look like Captain America at all. His hair is shorn off and he’s grown a beard. She wonders why they changed appearances so drastically. And why they are apparently posing as a married couple. The last thing Darcy remembers is talking to him before they flew out to Germany.

He is as weirded out as she is. He stares at her in shock the whole time the doctor is in the room.

“What is happening?” he whispers when they are finally left alone. He sinks into the visitor’s chair heavily and drags his hand across his face. Darcy can’t help but stare at the ring on his left hand.

“I don’t know,” Darcy whispers back. “How did we get here?”

“So you don’t remember either?”

“No, the last thing I remember is flying to Germany,” Darcy tells him.

“Me too. I have no recollection of what happened afterwards… in between, until now.” He thinks for a moment. “Why is SHIELD not here? They should be all over this. Once they come, I’m sure they’ll clear things up.” He nods as if to convince himself. “It’s weird that they aren’t here yet, to be honest. DC is not that far on a Quinjet and we were admitted hours ago. Something must’ve pinged then… They should have a local office, too. Why are they not here?”

They are silent for a moment as they stare at anything but each other.

“Is there anything that can help us figure stuff out?” Darcy then asks. “I mean, we must have done something? Look at us! We don’t even look like ourselves! I’m a blonde for god’s sake! And I have a stab wound on my lower abdomen, that’s partially healed…”

He looks up at that. “Any other curious scars?”

“A healed flesh wound on my left shoulder that might be from a bullet,” Darcy begins to recite, “a stab wound on my abdomen that is a few days old. And then the concussion, a head wound and the broken ribs. How about you?”

“I don’t scar… the serum,” he shrugs, “sorry, I can’t be of any more help.”

“But why can you not remember?” Darcy says accusatorily. “I mean, I have a concussion and that can lead to temporary amnesia, right? But you, you should remember! You’re the legendary Captain America!”

“I’m sorry!” he all but yells and begins to drag his hand through his hair until he remembers that he now has only hair stubble and lets his hand fall to his side awkwardly.

“SHIELD is gonna come and they’re going to figure this out,” Captain America says. “Until then we just should remain calm and roll with the punches. Everything is going to be fine. It’s going to be fine.”

It takes two hours for SHIELD to make an appearance. Darcy and the Captain sit in tense silence the entire time. Finally, Agent Sitwell and two other agents enter the room. Darcy has only met him once, in London, but now she feels so happy to see a familiar face.

He looks between the two of them, takes in their changed appearances and probably their freaked-out expressions. He orders the two agents to wait in front of the hospital room and secure it.

“Captain Rogers, Agent Lewis,” he says. “We finally found you after you’ve been both AWOL for two weeks. What the hell happened?”

~*~

Agent Blake left the room without a backward glance, leaving Darcy and Captain America behind. Darcy got up and shuffled her feet. They were both supposed to go to operations control. Did that mean they should go together?

The Captain gathered his things and bowed down to get his shield, which he then strapped to his back. Darcy didn’t stare. Not at all.

He went to the door but stopped back to look at her. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked.

“On my way,” Darcy simply said, falling into step next to him.

They walked next to each other without saying anything for a few moments.

“So, how do you know Nat?” the Captain finally broke the silence.

Darcy frowned up at him. “Who?”

“Nat, Natasha. Natasha Romanoff.”

“The Black Widow?” Darcy clarified. “I don’t know her. Personally I mean.”

“You don’t?” the Captain sounded surprised. “She made it appear as if you did.”

“Um, no… you’re only the third Avenger I’ve met. I know Thor and Clint, that’s it.”

“That’s three more than most,” he pointed out.

“True.” Darcy nodded. “Why did you think I know the Black Widow?”

“Because like I said, she volunteered me. She asked me for a favour, to accompany you. It seemed like you were close.”

“I didn’t even _know_ the Black Widow knew who I was, much less be so invested to ask Captain America to look out for me on my first mission. That’s terrifying,” Darcy said honestly.

“Not really, Natasha’s nice. Ask Thor to introduce you.”

“Not in this lifetime,” Darcy muttered.

They walked next to each other in silence again and Darcy realised how much attention they were attracting. Well, not her, but the Captain. Darcy was reminded of high school, only that one of the popular guys from the football team had never walked next to her in the hallway.

Some people were openly staring, even whispering. He either didn’t notice (highly unlikely) or didn’t care. Half an hour ago, she had walked backwards out of a meeting room when she had seen him sitting there and he hadn’t even flinched or made any mention of it. He was probably used to the attention by now. Darcy idly wondered what the rumour mill would conjure about them. She knew that Captain Rogers’ private life – or lack thereof – was one of the major topics in the DC office.

“So, I know how you know Thor,” the Captain continued, while they were waiting for the elevator to arrive, “but not Clint. How did you meet him?”

“New Mexico, two years back. He was there, one of the jack-booted thugs that stole Jane’s research.”

“Ah, true, I remember he mentioned something like that. So I assume Clint is less frightening than Natasha?”

“Sure he is, I mean, have you seen him? Of course you have,” Darcy corrected herself, “you work with him. His marksmanship is legendary. But he’s also so… so… so normal.”

“We all are.”

“No, you really are not,” Darcy disagreed before she could stop herself. “Thor is not, from what I heard the Black Widow is not, you _definitely_ are not. Clint is the outlier.”

The Captain looked at her in apparent amusement. “If that’s what you think, I’m not going to contradict you.”

Darcy squinted at him. “Is this all going into your assessment?” she asked. “That I dared to contradict Captain America, national legend, high level SHIELD agent?”

He frowned at her. “No, it’s definitely not. Why would I do that?”

“To test me?”

“I’m not testing you.”

“Then why all the questions? And the general… niceness.”

“I’m trying to put you at ease before your first mission,” the Captain explained patiently. “You’re bound to become nervous and all. I’m trying to show you that you can be open with me.”

Darcy looked at him, still not entirely convinced.

“You can call me Steve, too, if you like,” he offered with a grin that was entirely too wide.

“Yeah, for the next few hours you’re my commanding officer, so hell no.”

~*~

SHIELD gets them released from the hospital within an hour and takes them into custody at their local site. Darcy is still in pain from her broken ribs and her concussion but gets enough meds to keep her going. She is glad to leave the hospital even though she still has no idea how she ended up in Brazil of all places. With Captain America. But now SHIELD is taking over.

Agent Sitwell doesn’t tell them anything as long as there’s a chance that they might be overheard. But he’s kind enough to assure Captain America that all his friends are well and accounted for. Hawkeye and the Black Widow returned from their Lahore mission a few days ago and then, immediately after, both went on two separate solo assignments; Thor and Dr Foster were on their research trip at the Arctic Circle and Tony Stark and Dr Banner were up to their usual shenanigans at the tower in New York.

But Captain America had disappeared without a trace for two weeks. He and the rookie agent he was supposed to supervise.

They sit both of them down in one of the conference rooms at their local offices. Darcy expects a long debriefing with a lot of questions, but instead Agent Sitwell just looks at them expectantly.

Darcy looks at the Captain, willing him to speak, but he looks as lost as she feels.

“You can cut to the chase if you like,” Agent Sitwell finally offers. “Sure, there will be disciplinary actions, but we’ll take your full confession into account.”

“Full confession about what?” Darcy asks suspiciously.

“How you carried out a clandestine affair right under SHIELD’s nose. Obviously, we want to know how long that has been going on.”

“What affair?” the Captain asks, confused, but Sitwell ignores him.

“And you decided to go AWOL for two weeks,” he continues, “and got mixed up in something weird that went way over your head. If you tell us everything, SHIELD can help; we can fix it.”

They both stare at Agent Sitwell for a full minute without saying anything.

“You know, it might have started out as innocent fun for you two, but people have done far worse things for love,” he prompts.

“Love?” Darcy repeats, frowning at him.

“Well, there is the topic of your marriage,” Sitwell continues.

“Marriage?!” both Darcy and the Captain ask in unison.

Instead of a verbal answer Agent Sitwell slides over a copy of a marriage certificate. It’s been issued by the marriage registry of Malta’s capital Valletta a week ago for Darcy Rebecca Lewis and Steven Grant Rogers.

“Okay, this is no longer funny,” the Captain states in a no-nonsense voice. “Can you please tell us what’s _really_ going on? If this is some kind of mind game, we would appreciate it if you could let us off the hook now.”

“It’s the truth, Captain,” Agent Sitwell answers patiently. “This is what we know, there’s no need to play pretend here. Obviously, you and Agent Lewis have been in a relationship for quite some time and kept it a secret, successfully so, which is impressive. There was euphoria after Agent Lewis’ successful first mission and you decided to make it official and eloped.”

He pointedly looks at both their left hands, where they are still both wearing a wedding band and, in Darcy’s case, a very large diamond engagement ring.

She stares at the ring on her finger for a few moments. “So these are not part of some cover we’ve established?” she asks. “On a SHIELD mission? That went wrong and landed us in a hospital?”

“No.” Sitwell shakes his head. “We don’t know what you did these last two weeks. Except get married and then being admitted to a hospital in Brazil. We would appreciate it a lot if you could tell us.”

“Well, that’s going to be difficult,” Captain America states acerbically, “because we don’t know either.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“The last thing both Agent Lewis and I remember is our flight to Germany. Afterwards there’s a blank of two weeks and then we woke up in a hospital a few hours ago.”

Agent Sitwell suspiciously looks between the two of them. “Captain, Agent Lewis, let me reiterate: you can both tell us the truth, there’s no need to play any games here. We’re the good guys.”

“So are we,” the Captain responds, “and we’re stating the truth when we tell you that we don’t know what happened either.”

Agent Sitwell stares at them for a moment. “Are you willing to take a polygraph test?”

“Yes!” Darcy nods emphatically but then stops when the headache becomes too painful.

“And there’s really nothing you want to tell us? Want to confess?”

“No.” They both shake their heads.

“Okay,” Agent Sitwell says. “Okay… we can deal with that. We will not arrest you, but consider yourselves to be under detention. I’ll have you both extracted to a SHIELD facility in DC. We’ll continue from there.”

He stands up to leave the room.

“Wait,” Darcy calls him back, “you mentioned my first mission. You implied it was successful? I didn’t fail it?”

“No, Agent Lewis, you were successful in securing the data. All was well. And then you two disappeared.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good morning, Mrs. You’re awake. [return]
> 
> Tutorial: [“How To Change Text on AO3 When the Cursor is Hovering Over It (Or Clicked on Mobile)” by La_Temperanza](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10957056)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your kind comments, guys! I appreciate it!
> 
> Super loud shout out to the Lady Pascal on tumblr. She stepped in to beta this story and I made some minor tweaks to chapter 1 and she improved this chapter too.

### Chapter 2

“The hallway looks clear, Lewis,” Steve spoke into comms, while he supervised the cloned feed from the security cameras in the office building.

“Roger that,” murmured Agent Lewis who then sucked in a surprised breath, probably because she had just realised that this could have come across as a pun about his name.

“You’re not the first to make that connection,” he said amusedly as the silence became awkward.

“Oh, right,” she sounded relieved, “let me guess: Tony Stark?”

“No, Howling Commandos.” She was silent on the other end of the comms. “And like I’ve told you so many times before today, this will not make it into my report either.”

“Great.” She didn’t sound convinced.

“Why’re you so afraid that I’m testing you all the time? Or that you’re offending me with your behaviour?” questioned Steve.

Agent Lewis, in his professional opinion, was capable and perfectly nice. He had read her file and her marks throughout training had been exemplary. She had all the makings to be a great agent but her behaviour was off. Somehow she was extremely suspicious of him and actually afraid about his final assessment of her. Steve knew that most people were overwhelmed by his mere presence due to his history and the legend he represented, but Agent Lewis was a special case. One moment she had no filter and spoke her mind freely (which was actually kind of refreshing) only to apologise profusely the next second because she was afraid of having offended him so much that he might actually end her career before it had even started.

“It’s not really you…” she finally said. “It’s more… something SHIELD would do? I’m not actually convinced that this is really about the mission. It should be perfectly straight forward, but it might be some psychological play or test… I don’t know… I’m nervous.”

“Think distracting thoughts, Lewis,” Steve advised.

“Yeah, better not,” she muttered and Steve wondered what she meant by that.

They were silent for a few more minutes while Agent Lewis progressed further into the building and was almost at the mark’s offices.

“Hey, Captain,” she spoke up suddenly.

“Yes, Lewis?”

“I’ve been thinking, about what happens if I successfully manage this mission. And there’s no psychological test or something.”

“And I don’t mention it in my assessment all the things you thought you’ve mortally offended me with?”

She was silent for a second and Steve wondered if he had inadvertently confirmed her worst fears. “Yes, that too,” she finally said.

“So what have you been thinking about?”

“Do I get my very own code name after this?”

Steve chuckled softly. “I don’t think that’s how it works,” he told her honestly. “And isn’t it more fun if your _real_ name instils fear in the heart of men and women?”

“It is, but then Darcy Lewis isn’t really going to cut it. Somehow my parents had the oversight to not name me Pilot Instructor Infuriosa,” she complained good-naturedly. “Or something Russian. Russian always sounds evil. You could order cake in a Russian accent and it would still sound like a threat.”

“That’s true,” Steve conceded.

Agent Lewis progressed in silence for a few minutes. “Status update, Captain. I made it into the office.”

Steve brought up the feed from inside the office suite Thorsten Kiesewetter’s investment trading agency was located in. “Okay, I see you. Take a left at the end of the hallway, the server room should be the third door down.”

“Are we sure nobody is around?” Agent Lewis asked. “Actually, a lot of lights are on in the offices and hall. Are we certain nobody is here any longer?”

Steve brought up the employee registry. “All the employees have left for the day according to the security data. Their badges were registered when they exited the building. The cleaning crew will come in a few hours.”

“Okay…” Agent Lewis said. “Then they’re simply not ecologically conscious. You’re supposed to turn off the light when you exit a room. And it isn’t just the lights that startled me, it’s eerily quiet.”

She proceeded down the hallway and the last thing Steve saw was her deactivating the security at the door for the server room before suddenly all the cameras went dark.

Steve blinked in surprise at his black screen for a moment, then he scrambled through the different feeds but all of them were dead. He tried accessing the security system but was locked out.

“Lewis, get out of there. Now!” he ordered.

“What’s up?”

“Somebody hacked us, hacked them, hacked the security system. I just lost control over the whole security feed. It went black.”

“It could just be an outage?” she suggested hopefully.

“No, I don’t think so. And even if it is, I’d rather not risk it. Get out of there.”

“But they could’ve just hacked anybody in this building,” Agent Lewis objected. “I mean, there are over 50 companies in this tower. It would be quite the coincidence for the same office to be robbed-”

“Only one of them has ties to a terrorist organisation as far as we know,” Steve interrupted her.

“Why does it have to be now? I just need 30 more seconds, a minute tops, and then I can just run out of here.”

“Lewis, I’m advising you to abort.”

“Captain-” she began.

“That’s an order, Agent Lewis.”

She was silent for a few seconds. “Fine,” she then just said.

“Meet me at the south escalator,” Steve ordered.

There was no confirmation from her. “Agent Lewis?” he repeated. “Meet me at the south escalator.”

She still didn’t answer. Steve’s hands flew over the keys of his computer, but all the cameras were still dark and he had no access to any other security features any longer.

“Agent Lewis, do you copy?” he repeated. “Agent Lewis?”

He was met with silence from the other end.

~*~

Nobody says anything to them on the flight back to DC. Darcy Lewis spends most of it sleeping with Steve occasionally glancing at her. She’s dressed in SHIELD issued sweatpants and an oversized hoodie. She looks exhausted and vulnerable. Steve remembers that she has a few broken ribs and a concussion. He wonders how she got her injuries; he wonders if he had similar injuries that were simply no longer there the moment he woke up because the serum had taken care of it already. He probably had been injured, he thinks, because he was admitted to the ER alongside Darcy Lewis. How did they even get injured to begin with? Steve is not invincible by any means, but it takes some brute force to knock him out or injure him so badly that he can’t fight back. And why doesn’t he remember anything? Ever since the serum Steve has near eidetic memory. Not knowing, not remembering, is a feeling he’s no longer accustomed to.

He takes the ring off his finger and looks at it for a long time. It’s just a simple platinum wedding band. SHIELD insists that they are pretty much legally married, that they tied the knot a week ago on Malta, and provided a copy of a marriage certificate. Steve has no idea why they got married. They’re basically strangers. He met Darcy Lewis yesterday – no, two weeks ago. He was her supervising agent. Sure, he’d heard about her from Thor already and Natasha seemed to like her and had asked him to accompany her. He’d made sure to read her file before they went on the assignment, but there was nothing more. So why was she his wife now?

SHIELD places them into custody at one of their safe houses in DC and Steve is glad that they’re spared the walk of shame at the Triskelion. He wonders who else knows that they were AWOL for two weeks; who else knows that they got married. SHIELD is probably trying to keep a tight lid on this.

As far as Steve is aware, they let Darcy Lewis sleep and recuperate, while he is interrogated several times, by a wide array of agents he has never seen before. He tells them the simple truth every single time: That he doesn’t remember anything about the last two weeks; that his last memory is getting ready to fly out to Germany and that he then woke up in a Brazilian hospital, where he was told that his wife was next door, still unconscious. He doesn’t know anything further, doesn’t know what they did, why they got married, or how they ended up in Brazil.

SHIELD subjects him to a polygraph and a few other tests. He has to undergo a full physical evaluation and they take a blood and a DNA sample. They would probably also have taken a hair sample, had he not shorn it off some time in the last two weeks.

It takes two days for both of them to be cleared. They’re finally ushered into an office, where they await their final judgement.

They sit next to each other awkwardly. Darcy Lewis is still very obviously injured. She sits stiffly because of the injuries to her ribs and there’s an ugly scar on her forehead, which is now surrounded by purple bruising.

“I guess I’ll take you up on your offer now,” she says quietly.

He frowns at her for a moment. “What offer?”

“The one you made two weeks ago, in jest, but still. The one about calling you Steve.”

He stares at her for a moment. “Yeah, that’s fine… Darcy.”

“We’re in this together, you and I.”

“And apparently also ‘til death do us part,” Steve says before he can stop himself.

She looks up at him sharply, but can’t say anything further, because another SHIELD agent, who introduces himself as Agent Adams, enters the room and sits down at the other side of the desk.

“Good news: You two are free to go and we have cleared you of all wrongdoing,” he cuts right to the chase.

Both Steve and Darcy let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.

“The bad news: We still don’t know what happened to you.”

“But you’re investigating, right?” Darcy asks immediately.

“Of course we are. We’re not comfortable with the fact that two of our own disappeared for two weeks only to reappear with no recollection of what happened to them. The fact that one of them is Captain America, who is nearly invincible, further aggravates the whole situation and makes it even more mysterious.”

“Obviously, you will keep us in the loop about the investigation,” Steve states in a voice that brooks no opposition.

“Of course,” Agent Adams hastens to assure him.

“So, what about our marriage?” Steve continues.

“Well, we still don’t have the notarised version of the certificate, but we’re 99% sure that it’s legal. And once we find out what you did in the two weeks, we’ll also know why you decided to get married. Obviously, we now know that you two have not been having a clandestine affair for months.”

“So what do we do in the interim?” Darcy asks.

“That’s really up to you. There are different options, as you know.”

“Divorce,” Darcy says.

“Annulment,” Steve offers.

“Staying married,” Agent Adams adds.

Darcy frowns at him. “Is that how SHIELD wants to play this?”

Agent Adams looks uncomfortable for a moment and then clears his throat awkwardly. “Well, actually, we’re willing for you two to take the lead on this.”

“Who knows?” Steve asks.

“About your marriage?” Agent Adams clarifies. “ _Everybody_. You made it public, public record, updated next of kin from the island and everything. You sent a copy of the marriage certificate to HR and added ‘notarised version to follow’. You were very thorough.”

“Oh god,” Darcy groans. “We’re the talk of the DC office, aren’t we?”

“Yup, the DC office,” Agent Adams confirms. “And probably 99% of SHIELD’s North America offices. And a good portion of the overseas operations. Basically every branch that had contact with US personnel in the past 10 days.”

“Shit,” Steve swears. He knows that SHIELD employees liked to gossip, and about him especially, but he didn’t expect _that_. “Is my private life really that interesting?

“Yes,” Darcy answers before Agent Adams can. “Your personal life or lack thereof was a major point of discussion. A major point,” she emphasises. “Everybody knew what you were up to. The moment Natasha Romanoff mentioned a name and suggested you ask her out, half of the office knew already. So yeah, you getting married would’ve made news in record time.”

Agent Adams nods. “Yeah, well, Darcy Lewis is now legendary among SHIELD personnel. Everybody knows you’re Captain America’s wife.”

~*~

Darcy woke up on the floor, with a gun in her hand and an unconscious body next to her. The back of her head hurt like crazy and when she moved her hand there, she felt an actual bump. She must have been knocked out by something heavy. She blinked, confused, and looked around. She was still in the server room. She idly wondered how long it had been since Captain America had told her to evacuate and abort the mission. How did she get a gun and when had another person entered the room? There must have been a third person, too, that had knocked both her and the stranger out.

She put the gun away, got up, and moved to take a look at the unconscious person in the room. He wasn’t breathing. There was a hole in his forehead and the back of his head was missing with blood and brain matter splattered on the wall behind him.

It was Thorsten Kiesewetter.

Darcy looked away quickly and swallowed bile rising from her stomach and up her throat. Then she took a deep breath, trying to quell the rising panic, but before she could apply her SHIELD training in any form and assess the situation level-headedly, the door was thrust open and the police rushed in.

Darcy stared at them in shock for a second. Then the two officers started talking to her in loud, rapid fire German, which she didn’t understand. The meaning was clear nonetheless. She raised her arms above her head and got onto her knees slowly to indicate that she wouldn’t resist arrest.

One officer kept his gun trained at her while the second one moved towards her carefully to place her in handcuffs. Once they’d done that, the first officer moved towards Thorsten Kiesewetter and just took a cursory glance at the crime scene, before he got out his radio, probably to call for reinforcements.

The officer who had arrested Darcy asked her something in German, which Darcy didn’t understand at all. Her grasp of German was rudimentary at best.

Darcy thought for a moment, not knowing what to do. Should she just remain silent and give nothing up in order to not accidentally compromise her cover? Or should she actually indicate that she didn’t understand anything that was going on, least of all the German language?

“American,” she finally rasped out.

The police officer scrutinised her for a moment, probably surprised by the turn of events.

“We are arresting you for the murder of Thorsten Kiesewetter, Miss,” he then told her solemnly.

“I didn’t do anything,” Darcy immediately rushed out.

“That is what they all say,” he just answered and said nothing further.

A few minutes later the reinforcements and the crime scene unit arrived. Darcy was taken from the scene and accompanied towards a police car that would take her towards the nearest station.

Because it was late, there was only a small crowd of onlookers outside, curious as to why there was suddenly a police operation happening in Frankfurt’s financial district. Darcy looked around and finally made out Captain America, dressed in a cap and a hoodie, standing by the entrance, behind a few other people. He caught her gaze and nodded once, twice. He appeared calm and collected and Darcy immediately felt relief wash over her. She wasn’t alone in this and he would help her out. He moved through the crowd to keep an eye on her, breaking their eye contact, and Darcy forced herself to look away in order to not to call attention to him.

Darcy silently followed the police officers towards the car and was put in the backseat. She found Captain America in the small crowd again and he held her gaze until the door was closed and she was driven away.

~*~

The first thing Darcy does once she’s out of SHIELD custody is to dye her hair back to its natural dark shade. Being a blonde was just too weird for her to handle, a stranger looked back at her in the mirror the entire time she was in SHIELD custody.

The second thing she does is schedule a skype call with Jane, who is currently at the Arctic Circle. Jane is basically her sister and Darcy will tell her everything, SHIELD NDAs be damned. And Jane probably already knows the basics from Thor anyway.

SHIELD puts Darcy on medical leave for another week and afterwards she will have to report to another supervisor for desk duty until she’s healed and cleared for fieldwork once again.

She and Captain America, Steve, her husband, decided to just roll with the punches that the office gossip mill will have in store for them. Agent Adams seemed relieved, probably because SHIELD didn’t really want to shout it from the rooftops that somebody had managed to defeat the invincible Captain America and somehow screwed with his mind so badly that he had no recollection of the last two weeks. So letting everybody think that Captain America had somehow found real love, eloped, and gotten married on a whim was the preferred strategy, strangely enough. SHIELD was always abuzz with gossip. In a few weeks their surprise marriage would hopefully be old news and they would be able to get a very quiet divorce or annulment. By then they would hopefully also know what had happened to them and brought the perpetrators to justice.

Darcy gets a hold of Jane late at night Norwegian time.

“Surprise!” Darcy places her hand in front of the camera as soon as Jane appears on the screen. Darcy has put her rings, the platinum wedding band and the diamond engagement ring she could never have afforded, back on for exactly that occasion. “I’m married.”

Jane stares at her for almost 30 seconds, her mouth hanging open. “How? What? To who?”

“Captain America.”

Jane looks relieved and then laughs. “Thank god you’re messing with me. I was worried there for a moment. I never know what you’ll get up to, Darcy. The engagement ring looks super realistic.”

“That’s because it is. I’m married to Steven Grant Rogers. And don’t call me Mrs. Captain America.”

“Very funny,” Jane just grins again. “I missed you. I missed your strange sense of humour. So what’s really been up?”

“Other than that I disappeared for two weeks? Well, me and Captain America both.”

“You disappeared for two weeks?” Jane repeats, sounding incredulous. “What? Wait, did you cut your hair? Is there a large wound on your forehead? Are you okay? Do I need to have Thor fly over to check on you?” Jane sounds increasingly frantic.

Darcy frowns at her. “I’m doing okay, considering, and you don’t need to send Thor to check on me,” she tries to calm Jane down.

“Okay,” Jane nods. “But what the hell is going on?”

“Don’t you know?” Darcy asks back. “I just cut right to the chase because I thought SHIELD would alert the other Avengers the moment Captain America disappeared and-”

“Captain America disappeared?” Jane cuts her off. “What? And what does this have to do with anything? This is not funny any longer, Darcy.”

“Jane, I’m dead serious right now. Asgardian pinkie promise.”

Jane narrows her eyes at her suspiciously.

Darcy takes a deep breath. “Okay, then I’m gonna tell you the whole story. And bear in mind that I’m doing okay, all things considered, so there’s no need to interrupt me.”

Darcy gives Jane a quick overview about her first mission, how she was partnered with Captain America and how she woke up two weeks later in Brazil with no recollection of anything that had happened, rings on her hand and SHIELD accusing them of going AWOL together to celebrate their eternal love. Jane just listens silently and at the end simply stares at her with her mouth hanging open.

“That is…” Jane begins, when she finally manages to gather her thoughts, “that’s one hell of a story.”

“And trust me, I couldn’t make this up, even if I tried. And you really didn’t hear anything?”

“No.” Jane shakes her head. “Thor hasn’t said a thing. There’s been no communication from SHIELD.”

“Hmm, weird.”

“And trust me,” Jane continues, “Thor would’ve told me. The marrying part first – because he loves both of you guys and will now probably be ecstatic the moment he hears – and then the disappearing part after that.” Jane thinks for a moment. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t tell Thor. We’ve been on a field trip away from easy access to communication for the better part of the last few weeks, but still, SHIELD could’ve found us.”

“We’ll find out,” Darcy states with more confidence than she actually feels. “They should’ve put the other Avengers on alert, but you never know what SHIELD is up to… They’ve launched a full investigation and all. You will of course hear everything.”

“Good,” Jane nods, “and we’ll be back in the States in a matter of weeks, too. Back in New York.”

“Great! Then you can finally introduce me to Tony Stark!” Darcy says enthusiastically. “And he can introduce me to Pepper Potts and she and I are going to be friends and then we can take over the world.”

“You know,” Jane grins wickedly, “you’re married to Captain America now. He could introduce you as well.”

“Oh, right! True,” Darcy says pensively. “That’s so weird.”

“Anything you want to tell me about him?” Jane prompts.

“About who?”

“Captain America.”

“Except that he’s basically a stranger and I’m married to him? Well, we’re not 100% sure that the marriage is legal. We’re still waiting for the notarised license but there’s a very strong possibility that we’re legally bound.”

“Anything else?” Jane waggles her eyebrows suggestively. “Maybe stuff before you went on your mission together. He _did_ volunteer for your mission…”

“Hah, very funny. No, Jane, there was nothing between me and Captain America. And _please_ , if there had been, I would’ve never kept that a secret from you. The moment after I would’ve tapped that hunky piece of perfection, you would’ve known. I would’ve shouted it from the rooftops.”

“Keep me updated on the developing marriage situation then. Also, I’m digging the hair.” Jane nods approvingly. “Looks badass.”

“I know, right? I was blonde, too. Don’t worry, I took a picture before I dyed it back. Sending it to you now,” Darcy says as she scrolls through her pictures on her phone to send it to Jane.

“Oh my god,” Jane exclaims when she opens the picture on her phone. “It’s as if I’m looking at a stranger!”

“I know! I bet there was some serious Alias shit that was going on! I mean, blonde! And I cut more than 10 inches. I would never have done that voluntarily, no matter how much people kept telling me in basic that long hair was a risk during close quarter combat and with explosives.”

“Well, it’s going to grow back.”

“Thank god for that. Captain America’s hair is gone, too, by the way. Buzz cut,” Darcy said in a stage whisper.

“That’s so weird! What did you guys do?”

Darcy shrugs, “I don’t know, but the not knowing is bugging me already. I hope SHIELD finds out soon.”

“Will they be able to restore your memories?” Jane asks. “Do you want me to do some research?”

“I don’t know. SHIELD isn’t sure either… Since we don’t know how we lost our memories to begin with…” Darcy trails off, pensive.

“Don’t think about that,” Jane tries to cheer her up. “Tell me more about the hubby! I mean, you’re married to that hunky piece of perfection now. What are you going to do about it?”

“Like I said, we’re basically strangers… I don’t know, he seems nice… That’s all I can really say. We’ll get a divorce or an annulment or something soon and that’s it.”

Jane’s grin turns wider. “So no plans to consummate the marriage? I don’t need to send Thor to play chaperone?”

“I have a couple of cracked ribs, Jane. I think sex is pretty much out of the question. Not that there’s any chance-”

“You didn’t tell me you were injured that badly!” Jane admonishes her, immediately worried again.

“There’s no need to worry. A few cracked ribs, a head injury as you can see, and strangely enough I have a half-healed stab wound-”

“You were stabbed?!”

“-and the remnants of a bullet wound,” Darcy finishes.

“You were shot as well?! Shot and stabbed?” Jane repeats, incredulous. “You didn’t mention that! Darcy!”

“I’m sorry, I kind of forgot.”

“You forgot? How do you forget that? You need to get your priorities in order.” Jane shakes her head. “Because you told me about Captain America’s buzz cut, but not about this.”

“I wish this was due to my new hardboiled ‘it’s SHIELD, that’s what we do’ shenanigans, so that getting shot is not really an issue, but, to be honest, not knowing how I ended up married to Captain America is kind of more worrisome than a bullet wound.”

“Those two things are probably related,” Jane points out. “You will find out both in due course.”

There’s a knock on Darcy’s door and she looks at it, frowning.

“Who’s that?” Jane asks.

“I don’t know. Nobody ever visits – except the occasional takeout guy.”

Darcy gets up to look through the peephole and then gasp and then returns to her computer. “It’s Captain America,” she tells Jane, who’s looking at her expectantly. “What’s he doing here?”

Jane starts grinning. “Conjugal visit?” she suggests.

“That’s something you do in prison, Jane,” Darcy chides her, but Jane’s grin just widens. “And it’s not funny! What do I do?”

“Answer it of course and find out what he wants.”

“But I can’t– It’s so embarrassing. Maybe I should just pretend that I’m not here.”

“He probably already heard you freaking out. Doesn’t he have super hearing? Nothing you can do now.”

Darcy scowls at Jane. “I hate you a little bit right now.”

“You don’t. And you want to give me all the details afterwards. I’ll leave you two newlyweds to it,” Jane says before she signs off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of German in this one, curtesy of yours truly. I couldn’t resist really. I lived in the Frankfurt area for a long time before moving to the US :)
> 
> Once again: If you hover over the German, the English translation will magically appear ;-) Mobile users: you’ll have to click on it.
> 
> Also: You can find the entire long German conversation translated into English in the end notes.

### Chapter 3

After Jane hangs up on her, Darcy despairs for a moment over the woefully inadequate state of her shoebox apartment (she’d just came back from an extended mission and was injured) and herself (she’s in sweatpants and an oversized hoodie because of said injury) before she decides to just own it. She’s married to the guy already, there’s really no need to impress him. Plus, he turned up out of the blue so he’ll have to deal with the consequences.

She opens the door with a bright smile and a “Hi” that hopefully doesn’t sound too artificial.

“Hey,” he greets her, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. An uncomfortable silence stretches between them before he thrusts two pizza boxes in her direction. “I brought pizza. I hope that’s okay?”

Darcy stares at him, but takes the pizza without thinking. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh,” he blushes and Darcy finds that weirdly adorable, “you’re kind of the only person I can talk to about this. And we’re married, so I thought… don’t be a stranger? I asked SHIELD for your address.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I didn’t mean to catch you on the wrong foot,” he apologises immediately. “And, obviously, you’re still injured. I should’ve thought of that. I can leave, if you like… you’re still recovering. I should’ve thought of that,” he repeats quietly.

“No, it’s fine,” Darcy steps aside to let him in. “If you can deal with the general mess that is both my apartment and my life, you’re welcome to stay.”

He doesn’t answer, instead his gaze falls to her left hand when he passes her on his way inside and Darcy realises in horror that she’s still wearing the rings. She quickly wrangles them off her finger and places them into her pocket.

“I was just showing them to Jane,” she explains hastily, turning around to close the door and to hide her embarrassment. “And telling her everything.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, apparently SHIELD didn’t tell Thor anything and I had to keep her in the loop.”

“Oh,” he repeats, processing the information.

“Yeah.”

They stand next to each other in another awkward silence. Darcy is thinking of something different to say, something less awkward, when he speaks up. “Maybe that’s why I haven’t heard from Nat yet. I thought she’d be all over this as soon as I was back stateside.”

“Is the Black Widow going to be a problem?” Darcy can’t help but ask. “I mean, there were rumours that her very obvious matchmaking was just a very elaborate ruse, a misdirection, and you two were actually a thing. Because if that’s the case, please set the record straight as soon as possible. I don’t really want the Black Widow to kill me over-”

“It’s not going to be a problem,” he cuts off her rambling. “Nat was only matchmaking, or trying to. So, her finding out that I’m married… She’ll probably high five you and then invite you for a drink or something.”

“I mentioned this before- before all this. The Black Widow knowing who I am is actually terrifying. Not a badge of honour.”

For the first, time there’s a ghost of a smile on his face. “I’ll let her know and try to keep her away from you as best as possible, but Natasha… she’s very invested in my love life.” He thinks for a moment. “Do you have anybody I should be apologising… and explaining the whole situation to?”

“Nah,” Darcy motions him to sit down on the couch and places the pizza boxes on the coffee table, “when you enter SHIELD basic training you basically give up all pretext of a private life. And SHIELD warns you very, very sternly not to enter into any kind of relationship with your fellow trainees. Don’t get compromised and all that. Attachments are very verboten, Jedi style. Also, there’s a SHIELD fraternization policy for all active duty combatants.”

“There is?” Steve asks.

“Yup, you know, you’re not allowed to date a supervisor or a subordinate and how the levels factor in… we’re probably breaking that big time. I think you’re not supposed to date somebody who’s more than three levels above or below you… But then, you’re an Avenger,” Darcy rambles on, “you’re probably exempted from everything and the Black Widow _did_ try to set you up with everybody, no matter their level, so-”

“I think they’ll make an exception,” Steve interrupts her.

“True.”

Darcy heads to the kitchen to get some napkins and upon her return to the living room she sits down on one side of the couch. She looks at Steve, who’s sitting awkwardly on the other side, calculatingly for a second. “Any awkward questions we should get out of the way before dinner?”

It visibly throws him for a second, then he takes a deep breath. “Do you-” he begins hesitantly, “I mean, can you find out if we had… sex?”

Darcy stares at him, incredulous. She can’t believe that of all the things he could’ve asked, he asked her _that_. “Are you actually worried about that?” she presses out, trying to remain calm and not freak out at him. “Are you suggesting that we got married just to have sex? Are you afraid you caught something from me? Is that what it’s all about? Do you take offense that I might have despoiled your innocence or something? Because I might take offense at your old-timey-”

“No,” Steve interrupts her. “That’s not what I meant.” He clears his throat awkwardly and Darcy notices that his face is beet red. “Just… you know, there might be... consequences?”

“Ohhhhhhh,” Darcy blushes as well, when she realises what exactly he’s asking her. “I had an examination after I returned to the States,” she explains pretending like it’s no big deal, “but there was no evidence that I’d been sexually active in the last few days, so we at least didn’t have sex during that timeframe. But, you know,” Darcy shrugs and tries to appear casual even though the heat in her cheeks could probably power a small town for a year or two, “we’ll see and if there’s something, we can take care of it. And I’m clean and you can’t get any diseases anyway, right?”

“Okay,” Steve sounds relieved, but also eyes her very closely. “It’s just, you know, you’re the woman, you’ll probably draw the short straw in everything and I’m really, really sorry.”

“Hey, none of this is your fault. I’m pretty sure you didn’t force me to marry you at gunpoint.”

“Okay, we don’t know that, but I’m still really sorry.”

“Hey, if it’s any consolation, given the circumstances, I think a surprise marriage would actually have been my idea. I mean, you’re the stoic, dependable one. I’m the crazy political scientist turned junior SHIELD agent that can barely keep her life together, so…”

“Stoic and dependable?” he repeats. “Well, you’d be surprised… But I guess we’ll find out everything soon enough.”

“Do you think-” Darcy bites her lip. “Do you think- Do you think we were in love?”

“No,” Steve answers without hesitation.

Darcy lets out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank god! As much of a dreamboat that you’re considered to be, Steve, I’m just not the type of girl that falls for insta!love and marries a guy within days. And I don’t think I had a personality transplant in the past two weeks.”

“Yeah… getting hitched to a random girl…” he stops himself. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, I-”

“You didn’t. I was a random girl. I _am_ a random girl. Like you said: we’re basically strangers.”

“Yes, so getting married to you, that would be very much out of character for me. And just so you know: I was alive during the 40s and World War II. People had sex without a real commitment, without being married. So, it wasn’t a thing for me then, it’s not really a… a thing for me now. I don’t know why I would marry you.”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Darcy repeats his words from earlier.

They eat their pizza in silence for a while.

“You changed your hair back,” he says, out of the blue.

“Yeah.” Darcy all of a sudden feels self-conscious about her appearance. “I’m not really a blonde.”

“Yeah, I know, it’s weird… We looked really different.”

“Are you getting rid of your beard any time soon?” Darcy can’t help but ask, because he hasn’t shaved it yet. It’s still weird… Bald, bearded Captain America… Steve Rogers she corrects herself. He doesn’t look at all like his alter ego.

He scratches it absentmindedly. “To be honest, I kind of like it. I never had a beard while I was in the army, because it was very much frowned upon, but now… I’ll grow out my hair again, I guess, the beard… I don’t know yet.” Darcy looks at the short hair on his head and wonders when they’ll be back to their normal appearances. To all things normal, really.

“I think you also dyed it before you cut it off,” she tells him. “It’s too dark to be your natural colour.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I’ll probably have to dye it back, too, once it’s longer. Or hope it’ll wash out.”

“Captain America not one for frosted tips?” Darcy grins.

He answers with a smile. “I think from context I can deduce what that means and no, I’m really not.”

“You know that it will lead to questions?” she can’t help but point out. “Our changed appearances?”

“Yeah, but then we’ll already be the hot topic of the SHIELD rumour mill for a bit, right?” he asks to which Darcy nods. “So… there’s nothing we can do. And, you know, maybe our new hairstyles will actually be a distraction or something.” He grins self-deprecatingly.

Again they sit in silence until Darcy can’t bear it any longer. “The not knowing is killing me already,” she confesses. “What did we do for two weeks?”

He looks actually relieved at her confession. “Same here. I have near eidetic memory thanks to the serum. Not knowing… not remembering, bugs me. I’m really glad that you feel the same way. We’re in this together, you and I.”

“You know what I keep thinking?” Darcy asks quietly and Steve looks at her earnestly. “‘Is this a test?’”

He stares at her for a second, clearly thrown by that statement. “How? Why?” he then asks.

“I mean, SHIELD could totally screw with a rookie’s mind and all that,” Darcy begins to explain. “Tell you that you woke up in the future and are basically a fugitive and see how you react to everything. How you proceed in the face of the challenge. They could do it; they would do it if they thought it’s for the greater good… And if you make it out okay, you’ll be recruited for SHIELD’s version of the Black Widow programme or something.”

“Yeah,” he agrees, “sounds like something SHIELD might do.”

“And the only thing keeping me from mulling over that possibility is that Captain America is sitting right here, as weirded out as I am. And I’m thinking that he wouldn’t do that, wouldn’t subject me to this kind of thing. They wouldn’t get Captain America involved in… something like this.”

“Thank you,” is all he says in response.

“I mean, I don’t know you, but I know your reputation. You wouldn’t take part in that shady SHIELD stuff.”

“We can change that,” he states, much to her surprise.

“Change what?”

“Not knowing each other,” he clarifies. “I meant what I said right at the beginning: Don’t be strangers. It would be nice to get to know you, my weird surprise bride. I can give you my number and… you know… maybe we’ll become friends. I mean, joint memory loss is a sound basis, right?” He shrugs, trying to play it cool. “And then in 10 years or so we can reminisce about that one time we were married for a few weeks.”

Darcy looks at Captain America, Steve, her _husband_ , for a moment. The entire situation is so weird, a friendship with Captain America is probably the least crazy thing to come out of it. “I’d like that.”

~*~

It was amazing how quickly SHIELD took over jurisdiction. Within two hours, two agents from the SHIELD facility in Wiesbaden had been dispatched to the Frankfurt police station where Agent Lewis was being held. Steve had gathered all their stuff, including their credentials, and met up with the agents at the entrance. They could barely contain their surprise at seeing Captain America waiting for them.

Once again, Steve had to explain his presence and then impatiently point out that he wouldn’t back off and stay behind. He let the two agents (Schneider and Jost) know in no uncertain terms that Agent Lewis was his responsibility and that he would see her safely home.

Steve did, however, lag behind when they entered the station. He let them do all the talking and smoothing over the ruffled feathers of German law enforcement. Steve was fairly conversational in German from the war, but he knew that it was better to let the experts handle it. And it was a weird feeling, too. He hadn’t heard that much German in years.

While the Agents handled the bureaucratic aspects and were granted access to the preliminary reports and met the officers working the case, Steve asked to be led to Agent Lewis’ cell.

She looked up when he entered and looked at him with an expression of relief. She was still handcuffed and looked tired and weary.

“How’re you holding up?” he asked quietly, crouching down to be at eyelevel with her.

“I’m okay. Better now that you’re here. They processed me and everything, but I haven’t been interviewed yet. I think they were waiting for results from the crime scene and just let me stew for a little. But hey, now I can add ‘held at a German prison’ to my ever expanding resume.”

“What happened?” Steve asked.

She shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. Thorsten Kiesewetter is dead, that’s all I know for certain. I was knocked out. I have a bump on my head to prove it.”

“Well, SHIELD is taking over, so we should have it sorted, soon,” Steve told her confidently.

“Great. Can you get me out of the cuffs at some point? They’re beginning to get uncomfortable. Also, I’m really bummed that I didn’t finish the mission. It seemed easy enough on paper.”

“Next time,” Steve tried to cheer her up. “And you probably have a more interesting story to tell than all your fellow rookies.”

“ _Please_ , that was already a given the moment I was partnered with Captain America. We could’ve watched grass grow and it would still probably have been voted the story of the greatest first mission ever.” She thought for a moment. “I should apologise in advance though, because there will be a lot of paperwork to fill out once we make it back to the States. A lot. You really didn’t sign up for that.”

“Good to know, but I’ll manage,” Steve said, smiling slightly, and then got up. “I’ll see what I can do about the cuffs and I’ll get you something to drink.”

“Thanks.”

Steve walked outside and looked around for the Agent Schneider and Agent Jost. The two agents were huddled together outside the holding area, looking at the paperwork from what Steve could tell.

“Hey,” he called to them, “I’m getting something to drink. Do you guys want anything?”

The stared at him in surprise, but then shook their heads no.

Steve wandered off to find a vending machine. SHIELD had supplied a few hundred euros in small notes and change in case of an emergency, which Steve now felt appropriate to use. He strolled through the corridor for a while, taking in the silence. Apart from the night shift there was little staff around. When somebody stopped him to ask what he was doing, all he had to do was flash his SHIELD credentials and he was left alone. He figured they would be here for a while, not only to figure out the paperwork but also to find out what had really happened to Thorsten Kiesewetter back at the office. This put a whole new perspective on a supposedly easy mission.

He finally found some water and some snacks at a vending machine and returned to the holding area. Both German agents had disappeared and when Steve returned to Agent Lewis’ cell, he found it empty. Steve stared at it for a moment and then rushed back to the front desk.

“Excuse me,” Steve asked the officer on duty, once again flashing his SHIELD credentials. “Where is the prisoner from cell 3?”

“Your colleagues just had her brought into interrogation a minute ago. Down the hall, then take a left.”

“Thanks.”

He hurried down the hallway and opened the first door on the right, fully expecting to interrupt an interrogation. Instead he found himself in the observation area.

“Wow, you’re really going the full mile with my interrogation and debrief today,” he heard Agent Lewis joke on the other side of the one-way mirror. “Part of the test?”

Steve looked at the scene before him for a moment, taking it in. The two agents sat on the table opposite Agent Lewis. He couldn’t see what they were doing, but by the looks of it, they clearly meant business. It irritated Steve to no end that Agent Lewis was still in handcuffs. Did they expect that if they let her go free, she would jump over the table and overpower them? She was a junior agent with half a year training, not the Black Widow.

“This is not a joke, Agent Lewis,” Agent Jost warned her, “we are here to ask you about Thorsten Kiesewetter’s murder.”

She stared at them for a moment. “Yeah, right,” she then said with a smile. “Can we just shorten the whole procedure? I mean, I’ve clearly failed the whole ‘thinking on your feet’ and the ‘quick problem solving’ test. We can go back to normal now. I should’ve figured this out earlier, should’ve been more suspicious the moment I was partnered with Captain America. Back to square one, back to training, right?”

“What are you talking about, Agent Lewis?” Agent Jost asked.

“This is my first mission,” she explained patiently. “All of this is a test.”

“No, it is not,” Agent Schneider disagreed immediately. “The German authorities have enough to press charges and keep you here indefinitely.”

That clearly threw her for a moment. She looked between the two agents in front of her. “But I didn’t do it,” she then simply stated.

“You were found on the scene of the crime with the murder weapon, Agent Lewis. That’s pretty damning evidence.”

Her mouth fell open and she stared at them. “But I didn’t do it,” she repeated with more conviction.

“So, tell us what happened then.”

Steve had enough, he left the observation area to interrupt the interrogation. He didn’t even knock, he just opened the door. “Jost, Schneider,” Steve said in a voice that brook no opposition, “a word.”

The two men looked at each other for a moment, but then got up, gathered their notes and followed him outside.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Steve demanded once they were in the hallway outside the interrogation room. He didn’t even bother trying to keep his voice down. This was ridiculous. They were turning on one of their own.

“We are interrogating the prime suspect,” Agent Jost explained.

“Excuse me?”

“Captain, she was found on the scene, she had the murder weapon. Preliminary investigations did not find anybody else there.”

Steve stared at both of them for a moment. “This is ridiculous. Agent Lewis is innocent.”

“And how would you know?” Agent Jost asked snidely.

“Because she told me.”

“And you believe her?” Agent Jost said, incredulous.

“I have no reason not to,” Steve shot back.

“You are being ridiculous, Captain,” Agent Schneider mocked. “There’s proof on the contrary-”

“What proof?” Steve demanded.

“Enough proof to make her the prime suspect.”

“You don’t even want to tell me what proof you have?”

“We cannot show you, you might be embroiled in all this. You, as her supervisor, are definitely compromised. As you can see, you are not even entertain the idea that Agent Lewis might be guilty. Be logical here,” Agent Schneider advised.

“Okay,” Steve said, taking a deep breath to calm down. “If you want to look at it from a logical perspective: Agent Lewis has zero motive. And nothing in her psych evals indicates that she’d just kill a person in cold blood.”

“That is why we started interrogating her,” Agent Schneider pointed out.

“Why don’t you just look at the surveillance tapes?”

The two agents looked at each other for a moment. “They were all deleted,” Agent Jost offered.

Steve stared at the two agents, entirely flabbergasted. “So you’re telling me that Agent Lewis shot the mark in the head in cold blood and then also managed to hack the security feed to get rid of any evidence? She’s a rookie agent!”

“She’s a skilled hacker, Captain.”

“I know, I’ve read her files, but it doesn’t make any sense. The timing doesn’t add up and she has no motive,” Steve repeated. “Also, why would she knock herself out afterwards and not just simply flee the scene?”

“That’s what we are trying to figure out when we started interrogating her,” Agent Schneider said, clearly exasperated.

“And what we would like to get back to now,” Agent Jost added.

“No,” Steve objected immediately. “You will not.”

“Excuse me?” Agent Jost stared at him.

“If this is real and you’re really interrogating her, then she should be offered a lawyer, legal counsel. I’m certain you didn’t do that, did you? Also, I’m pretty sure that there are SHIELD protocols in place for situations like this.”

“What exactly are you suggesting?” Agent Schneider squinted at him.

“I’m not suggesting anything, Agent Schneider. I’m just making sure that Agent Lewis’ rights are not violated by her own organisation.”

“This is SHIELD, we are the good guys.”

Steve crossed his arms in front of his chest. “The fact that you have to forcibly remind me of that because I can’t tell from your actions says it all, doesn’t it?”

The two agents stared at him for a moment until they finally caved. “We will bring Agent Lewis back to her cell,” Agent Jost announced. “And we will get somebody, legal counsel, from SHIELD Germany here.”

“Good,” Steve nodded.

Agent Lewis was brought back to her cell and Steve followed. He handed her the water he’d gotten and she took it, smiling up at him gratefully. Steve asked himself for a moment what he should do to assure her that everything would be okay.

“Sorry about the handcuffs,” he apologised instead. “But SHIELD is pretty insistent on keeping those on.”

“Maybe I should learn how to pick them,” she mused quietly.

“They don’t teach you that in SHIELD basic training?” Steve tried to cheer her up. “You should file a proposal for improvement once you’re back at the Triskelion. Then at least something productive might come out of all of this.”

He sat with her in silence for a bit.

“You know that I didn’t do it, right?” Agent Lewis finally asked quietly.

“Yeah, I know and I’m here to help you. I might not know what’s happening, but we’ll figure it out,” he assured her.

“Good, because I have the feeling that somehow SHIELD is trying to pin everything on me and it doesn’t make any sense.”

“It doesn’t,” Steve agreed.

They were silent again and then Steve went back to see if there had been any development from SHIELD.

He found the two agents at the other end of the hallway, whispering to each other in German.

“Der Captain ist natürlich ein Problem[ Translation ],” Steve’s ears perked up at Agent Jost’s words, wondering why exactly the SHIELD agents would find his presence to be a problem. Sure, he was interfering with their work, but for good reason. They should do their jobs and figure out what had happened to Thorsten Kiesewetter instead of zooming in on Agent Lewis as the prime suspect.

“Aber er kann nicht[ Translation ]-” Agent Schneider stopped short when they saw him appear and shut up immediately.

Steve wondered if they knew about both his German skills and the enhanced hearing. He had never really bothered to figure out to what extent his abilities had been made public.

The wait was starting to grate on him. Steve checked up on Agent Lewis regularly and was somehow relieved to see that she had fallen asleep in her cell. It took another two hours for a third SHIELD agent to appear. She ushered all four of them into an empty office, closing the door behind them.

“Captain, it’s an honour. Agent Unverzagt, chief legal counsel,” the woman introduced herself. “We never met when I was stationed in DC, but of course everybody knows who you are.”

“Thanks,” Steve said uneasily. “Now, to the topic at hand?”

“Yes,” Agent Unverzagt nodded thoughtfully. “Captain, why are you so quick to defend her?”

Steve stared at her for a second. “Why are you so quick to find her guilty?” he then asked back.

“Captain Rogers, were you with Agent Lewis at all times?”

“No, but-”

“Then you can’t be certain that Agent Lewis did not kill the mark, can you?” she interrupted him.

“No, but Agent Lewis would never-”

“There’s enough proof for the contrary, Captain.”

“Proof I have yet to see.”

“Proof you don’t need to see,” Agent Unverzagt countered. “More important people have seen it and considered it valid. The authorities will be pressing charges. I just got off the phone with the prosecutor. They want to transport her to central booking.”

“What?” Steve said in outrage. “You can’t do that! You need to investigate! It wasn’t her!” Steve towered over her, but she didn’t even flinch.

“Captain, I urge you to remain calm in this.”

“Calm? This is injustice!”

“Captain Rogers,” Agent Schneider interfered, “shut your mouth or we will be forced to have you arrested too.”

Steve glared at him and the agent took one step back. “As what?” he hissed.

“As an accessory.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he looked between all three of them. “This is a joke. You’re all ridiculous. This must be a joke.”

“I assure you, it is not, Captain. Get your thoughts into order and accept this,” Agent Jost advised.

“You should stop making a scene,” Agent Unverzagt warned him. “We really don’t want to make this into an international incident.”

Steve’s eyebrows nearly rose to his hairline. “International incident? SHIELD has never cared about that before.”

“I’m urging you to be reasonable,” she said.

He stared at them for a moment. This had spiralled out of control too quickly. He needed help, support from SHIELD, from someone he trusted. He couldn’t deal with this on his own.

“I’m taking a walk,” he announced and stalked out of the room before they could say anything further. He got his phone out to start calling people at SHIELD. None of this made sense. He had to get to the bottom of this, preferably before Agent Lewis was transported to the nearest prison.

“[entire scene in English]Was zum Teufel macht Captain America hier[ Translation ]?” Agent Unverzagt hissed as soon as Steve had rounded a corner and was out of sight. So they probably didn’t know about his enhanced hearing or his German or that Natasha had adjusted the case file to make him Agent Lewis supervising agent.

“Wir wissen es nicht[ Translation ],” Agent Schneider said meekly.

“Das verkompliziert die ganze Sache natürlich. Captain America ist ein Problem[ Translation ].” For the second time that night Steve asked himself why exactly the other SHIELD agents, his co-workers, would find his presence a problem. Maybe he would find out this time.

“Aber kein unüberwindliches[ Translation ],” Agent Jost hastened to calm her. “Er kann sie nicht ewig beschützen, er kann nicht[ Translation ]-”

“Das hier ist ein deutsches Gefängnis[ Translation ], Jost,” Agent Unverzagt interrupted him, “keine Zelle in ner zurückgebliebenen Bananenrepublik, wo man Menschen einfach so verschwinden lassen kann[ Translation ].”

The conversation became even weirder. Why would they want Agent Lewis to disappear? Steve asked himself.

“Ich weiß, aber Unfälle passieren jeden Tag und auf dem Weg zum Frauengefängnis kann so einiges passieren[ Translation ]…” Agent Jost trailed off, leaving no doubt as to what accident he wanted to happen to Agent Lewis on the way to the prison.

“Kümmern Sie sich drum[ Translation ],” Agent Unverzagt ordered and that was the last thing Steve heard before they went out of earshot.

Steve leaned back against the wall. That just didn’t make any sense. They were actively plotting against one of their own. They were planning on killing Agent Lewis and making it look like an accident. Why would they do that?

Ever since Steve had started working for SHIELD, he’d met a variety of different agents. Some of them were arrogant DC bureaucrats, some were fumbling idiots, some of them insisted on protocol a little too much. That was annoying but they were still SHIELD; they were still the good guys. Steve had had some reservations about the three German agents because they were convinced of Agent Lewis’ guilt and had, so far, refused to see reason, but he hadn’t expected them to turn out to be so… evil.

Or maybe they weren’t even SHIELD agents, Steve realised. They could be the real perpetrators who posed as SHIELD agents who now tried to cover their tracks. Agent Lewis was probably on the top of the list of their problems that needed to be solved first. If Steve didn’t do anything, she would probably not survive the night. SHIELD – or rather, the agents pretending to work for SHIELD – had taken full authority over the case. There was nothing to stop them.

Steve tried to gather his thoughts and come up with a plan. He could easily overpower the three agents, but they were still at a police station and Agent Lewis was still a prisoner, though thankfully the only one right now. Steve had no idea how to deal with the police officers on site. Some of them had probably overheard their argument, too, and had reason not to trust him.

Steve considered all the angles. He had to get them both out, quickly, efficiently and, most importantly, without being noticed. Then he had to make sure to get away as fast as possible. It wouldn’t be easy.

When Steve returned to the holding cells, Agent Unverzagt was just coming out of Agent Lewis cell. Steve squinted at her, letting his annoyance show.

“I have to speak with Agent Lewis,” he then announced.

“I’ve already spoken with the-”

“I don’t care,” Steve cut her off. “I’m going to speak with her.”

“There’s nothing you can do. She’ll be transported within the hour. She knows that she has to face the consequences of her actions.”

Steve just glared at her, but didn’t say anything further. He stepped into the cell, closing the door behind him. He looked at Agent Lewis for a moment, trying to figure out how to break the whole thing to her slowly. She had already been through a lot today. He could tell that she only barely managed to put on a brave face.

“Captain, I didn’t do it,” Agent Lewis started immediately when she saw him.

“I know,” Steve reassured her.

“I didn’t go all crazy and shoot a guy in the head.”

“I know.”

“He wasn’t even there when I got into the office.”

“I know.”

“And you know that I didn’t have a gun with me when I went inside.”

“I know.”

“Even if I did: I’m not a stone-cold killer.”

“I know.”

She bit her lip. “You know what I keep thinking? ‘Is this a test?’”

Steve stared at her for a moment, thrown by that statement, by the exact same wording he had used, once upon a time. “You know that it isn’t,” he felt forced to point out.

“I know. But if it were: This test sucks,” Darcy declared quietly. “And I just want to fail it already and be done with it. I know that won’t happen, but I’m still hoping. I really don’t want to rot away in a German prison.”

“Good,” Steve nodded and then took a step towards her. He crouched down once more to be at eyelevel with her. “Prepare for the next curveball,” he said quietly so that they wouldn’t be overheard. “Because I’m going to break you out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Captain is a problem [return]
> 
> But he can’t[return]
> 
> “What the fuck is Captain America doing here?” Agent Unverzagt hissed as soon as Steve had rounded a corner and was out of sight. So they probably didn’t know about his enhanced hearing or his German or that Natasha had adjusted the case file to make him Agent Lewis supervising agent.
> 
> “We don’t know,” Agent Schneider said meekly.
> 
> “This makes this whole mess a lot more complicated. Captain America is a problem.” For the second time that night Steve asked himself why exactly the other SHIELD agents, his co-workers, would find his presence a problem. Maybe he would find out this time.
> 
> “But nothing we can’t solve,” Agent Jost hastened to calm her. “He can’t protect her forever, he can’t-”
> 
> “This is a German prison, Jost,” Agent Unverzagt interrupted him, “not a prison cell in some backwater banana republic where you can make people disappear.”
> 
> The conversation became even weirder. Why would they want Agent Lewis to disappear? Steve asked himself.
> 
> “I know, but accidents happen every day and a lot can happen during the transport to the women’s prison...” Agent Jost trailed off, leaving no doubt as to what accident he wanted to happen to Agent Lewis on the way to the prison.
> 
> “Take care of it,” Agent Unverzagt ordered and that was the last thing Steve heard before they went out of earshot.[return]


	4. Chapter 4

### Chapter 4

Darcy stared at him, flabbergasted. “What? You can’t be serious,” she whispered urgently.

“Something is seriously wrong here, Darcy.” Darcy was momentarily stumped by his use of her first name. “And please don’t freak out, but I’m actually afraid that you won’t survive the night if I leave you here alone.”

“But… but… I’m innocent! And SHIELD should protect me.”

“The thing is,” Captain America whispered, “I don’t think these guys are even SHIELD.”

Darcy’s mouth fell open. “You think they’re impersonators?”

The Captain nodded curtly. “Who are trying to frame you for a crime you didn’t commit.”

“And you have to break me out of prison for this? Can’t you just… I don’t know, call somebody? Make it go away?”

“I will, once I get you to safety. But I have to get you out first.”

“Okay,” Darcy nodded, trying to wrap her head around the whole situation, “okay, okay, okay. You’re the expert of course.”

“Good,” he got up. “Just follow my lead, okay? And don’t freak out.”

He left her alone in the cell and for a moment Darcy was just too confused to function. Her life had gone to shit in the last 6 hours. What the hell had happened? She had been an innocent junior SHIELD agent who had surprisingly been partnered with Captain America. Now she was on the hook for murder, apparently her life was in danger, and she was about to become a fugitive for a few hours. Thank god she had Captain America by her side, he would know what to do.

The fire alarm sounded 20 minutes later and immediately afterwards her prison cell was opened and a police officer appeared to evacuate her. Darcy went with him without any protest, hoping that this was part of a greater plan. The Captain appeared seconds later.

“I’ll take care of my prisoner,” he announced, flashing his SHIELD credentials.

“But-” the officer started to protest.

“SHIELD took over jurisdiction hours ago, she’s no longer your concern,” the Captain cut him off.

The officer squinted at him suspiciously. “Don’t you have colleagues to help?”

“They’re getting ready as we speak, but I can handle her alone.”

The officer looked between the two of them, clearly undecided. “She’s SHIELD’s responsibility,” the Captain urged, “nothing you need to care about. There’s paperwork and everything. You should find out if you can help some other way, in this chaos.” The last part was clearly overstated, there was no chaos going on, the people around exited the building quickly and efficiently.

“Okay…” the officer began slowly, then looked once more at his credentials, “Captain Rogers, she’s all yours.”

He handed her over and Captain Rogers took Darcy by the arm and marched her towards the nearest exit.

“What are you doing?” Darcy asked under her breath.

“I’m getting your out here, right through the front entrance. I just have to get you to the car.”

“What car?” Darcy whispered.

“The car the other SHIELD agents arrived in.”

Darcy stared at him for a moment. “What did you do?” she then whispered.

“I took care of them.”

“What did you do?” Darcy repeated, more urgent.

He frowned at her. “They’re just out, unconscious, that’s all. Don’t worry, they’re the bad guys.”

They were once again stopped at the entrance by another police officer. He looked between Darcy and her escort.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

The Captain put himself to full height. “I’m escorting my prisoner to make sure that she doesn’t escape,” he said condescendingly.

“We have everything under control,” the officer replied immediately.

“Really?” the Captain gestured at the scene before him, where firefighters had now appeared and people stood together huddled in the yard. “I’m not taking any chances. This is SHIELD business, so she’s no longer any of your concern, detective. I’m taking her to our facility, my co-workers will remain behind to deal with the paperwork.”

“We have protocol to follow for a prisoner transfer,” the detective pointed out.

“And you’re free to do just that… once you’re settled again,” the Captain said and just marched on without any further words. Thankfully the detective didn’t detain them any further.

He marched Darcy to a black SUV without any further interruptions and put her in the backseat. Then he got into the driver’s seat and pulled out of the parking lot. He flashed his SHIELD badge at the exit and was let go without any further questions. He got onto the street and together they disappeared into the night.

~*~

Darcy returns to the Triskelion three days later, the medical leave is driving her crazy. Usually she’d be happy about staying home on the company dime, she has a ‘to be read’ pile that’s a mile high and a Netflix queue that is equally as long, but being alone at home, after not knowing what you did for two weeks, is making her cagey and restless. So she goes into the Triskelion to find a place to read her case file from two weeks ago and to see if that triggers any memories.

It feels strange returning to the office, now that she’s actually a topic of conversation among SHIELD personnel. People look at her funny but thankfully nobody says anything. There are a few pointed looks at her left hand (purposely without any rings, SHIELD confiscated her engagement ring and she’s going without the wedding band) and her abdomen, strangely enough. The looks that follow her, scrutinising her, bother her a lot. She wishes she could just return back to her former obscurity, where a select few people knew about her connection to Thor and to one of the world’s leading astrophysicists.

She makes her way to one of the bullpens that doesn’t have assigned seating and quickly finds an empty spot. Thankfully, most stations are unoccupied. She fires up the computer and logs into her account. She has a slew of new emails, mostly congratulations on her recent nuptials from people she barely remembers and increasingly frantic reminders from HR telling her that she needs to update the rest of her next of kin information now that she’s married to qualify for all the spousal benefits. Darcy ignores them all and brings up SHIELD’s database to access her case file.

The link to it sits right at the top of her home screen, her first and, so far, only solo mission. She braces herself and clicks on it. There’s a moment where it loads and then there’s a red notice telling her that she doesn’t have clearance to access it. She’s taken aback for a moment and then tries again. But the message on the screen still tells her that the file is above her clearance level. She frowns at the screen. That doesn’t make any sense. Agent Sitwell told her that she completed the mission, wrote the report and filed it.

She tries a third time and then turns the computer on and off again. But even then the message persists, telling her she’s not authorised to access the case file, mocking her, blocking her from the knowledge she is supposed to have.

Darcy leans back in the office chair for a moment. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s her case. The case that started the whole thing. Why is she suddenly not supposed to see it? She can’t come up with a good explanation.

She thinks for a moment, trying to come up with a way to access her file, but all the people she knows – and feels comfortable enough to ask – have her clearance level or an even lower. Only belatedly does she realise that she is actually now married to somebody with high clearance, with Avengers level clearance.

She hasn’t spoken to Steve, Captain America, _her husband_ , since the night they had pizza and sat on the tiny couch in her apartment. Sure, they’d said that they could be friends, had exchanged numbers, but then nobody had made the first step… It is such a weird situation. What are you supposed to do with your surprise husband? Ask him out for coffee and talk about your hopes and fears and have deep, meaningful conversations? Find a marriage handbook and belatedly answer “13 Questions to Ask Before Getting Married”? Do nothing and immediately proceed to the “we are indifferent to each other” phase of a marriage that mostly precedes divorce?

But Steve’s her best bet to actually gain access to the file – well, him or SHIELD IT services. But filing a report can take up to a week to be processed, so she decides to bite the bullet. And maybe he already looked it up himself. He has a vested interest in that case as well, doesn’t he?

The leads her to the next question: How is she supposed to find Captain America? Before being sent on a mission with him she never crossed paths with him. It’s highly unlikely to just run into him in a hallway or the cafeteria. He probably has an office, she thinks. But then: The Triskelion is huge and she doubts that he’s listed in the internal directory because they probably don’t want star struck fans queuing in front of it. And she doesn’t even know if he’s currently on site or not. She tries his private number, but it goes straight to voicemail. With her luck, he’s probably doing some super-secret spy stuff in the middle of nowhere and will only return in a few weeks or so.

There’s a sound next to her and she wheels around to find Clint Barton standing right next to her, grinning widely. He does it to her all the time, sneaky spysassin that he pretends to be, when he’s not a completely failboat in real life. Darcy still finds it weird that he’s actually an Avenger.

Darcy first met Clint Barton in a dingy bar in Puente Antiguo after the destroyer had attacked the city. He was nice and funny, but after they’d taken all of Jane’s stuff, Darcy had decided, out of principle, not to sleep with anybody from SHIELD. She’d met him again, two years later in London. He just appeared in the ambulance next to her, grinning entirely too widely and asking her how her life plans were going these days. Darcy suspects that it was Clint who suggested recruiting her into SHIELD to the higher-ups, but whenever she brings it up, he denies it vehemently.

Nevertheless, Darcy can tell that he looked out for her during her SHIELD training. Every now and then he would appear and check if she was doing okay. It hadn’t taken long for Darcy to realise what a failboat he was in real life, with his weird archery stunts and cuts and bruises that mostly came from him failing at something non-threatening, like the coffee machine or finding office supplies. It had, however, taken her two months to figure out that he was a real-life Avenger, the Avenger who went by the code name “Hawkeye”. She hadn’t even connected the dots herself. Her fellow trainees had stared at her in some kind of reverence after seeing them together once and then asked her how she knew an Avenger. It had put her in some elevated status in their group and Darcy was happy that she had never told them about Thor, because she didn’t want to be treated differently.

That is probably entirely impossible now that she’s married to Captain America.

“Mrs. Rogers!” Clint grins and Darcy groans and buries her face in her hands. “Or do you prefer Mrs. America?”

“Ugh, let’s not.”

Clint’s grin just widens and he casually leans against the edge of the desk. “I have to say, I’m disappointed Darcy,” he says evenly, “about the elopement. I was supposed to be your mate of honour – or whatever you call a male maid of honour. And Nat would’ve been Steve’s best maid. And Thor would’ve officiated it.”

Darcy doesn’t answer. She isn’t in the mood to joke about her situation. Not yet at least.

“Such a shame though…” Clint continues, “the surprise wedding. We might’ve gotten Tony to throw you two lovebirds the awesomest wedding reception imaginable.” He stares at her for a moment, then actually turns serious. “Not in the mood to joke about it yet?”

“No, not really,” Darcy tells him honestly.

He scrutinises her for a moment, his gaze stays on the cut on her forehead a moment too long. “I know I’m not the one to talk, but: aren’t you supposed to be on medical leave? I heard something about broken ribs, a minor concussion, and cuts and bruises.”

“Medical leave was driving me crazy so I came here to do some research.”

“On your own case?” he enquires. “Parallel to SHIELD’s own investigation into it?”

“Yup, but I’m stuck at stage one…” Darcy says. “Hey,” she adds, when she realises that Clint might be the easy solution to her problem. “Can you do me a favour?”

He looks at her quizzically, but then nods.

“I can’t access my mission report,” Darcy explains, “you know, the mission in Germany that started it all, because I don’t have the clearance for it. You should, right? What are you? Level 7? Level 8? Can you access it for me?”

“Sure, I can try,” Clint answers without hesitation. “Scoot along. Mark down the mission number, makes it easier to find in the system since I wasn’t involved.”

Darcy logs out and Clint enters his credentials. He looks for the mission in the system and quickly finds it, but when he tries to access it, he also receives the “Access Denied” notice.

“That’s weird,” Darcy says, frowning.

“Not necessarily,” Clint explains. “Information at SHIELD is protected by more than the level system. Sure, when you have a higher clearance level, you might be able to find out stuff on the lower levels more easily, but sometimes you need to be a member to a mission to access it.”

“Okay,” Darcy nods. She remembers that she learned that in her first few weeks at SHIELD.

“Why didn’t you to ask Steve about this?” Clint asks. “He has an even higher clearance than me and was involved in the operation. He can probably help you.”

“I didn’t know how to contact him,” Darcy confesses. “I don’t even know if he’s on site.”

“Oh, he is,” Clint says, “met him this morning. He’s grounded for a while and not a happy camper. I can take you to him.”

~*~

They rushed towards the nearest highway, silent, looking behind them to make sure that nobody was following.

“How long do you think we have?” Darcy asked ten minutes later, when she was finally sure that they didn’t have anybody tailing them.

Captain America looked at her through the rear-view mirror. “Before they find something amiss? Probably the unconscious fake SHIELD agents? Half an hour, maybe.”

“Where’re you taking me? SHIELD headquarters in Wiesbaden?”

“No, there’s a safe house close to the airport, we can go there and regroup.”

“And ditch the car.”

He nodded. “That too.”

Darcy looked out of the window and idly jingled with the handcuffs.

“Sorry,” the Captain said, “I don’t have keys for the cuffs but I can break them at our next stop.”

“Super strength, huh? But yeah, getting rid of those would be nice. But I trust you remembered to pack everything else? Our money, equipment, papers and the like?”

“I did,” he confirmed.

“And maybe we should stop at the next opportunity,” Darcy added as an afterthought. “To get rid of the GPS.”

“GPS?” he repeated.

“Most of these cars have them and we don’t want to make it too easy for our enemies to find us, right?”

“I’ll stop at the next service plaza,” he said.

They made their stop 10 minutes later and Darcy was finally free of the handcuffs. She looked up at the Captain gratefully, massaged her wrists for a moment, and then went straight to work. They found the GPS tracker hidden in the glove box within minutes and destroyed it right there, before making the rest of the way to the secure location. They ditched the car a few blocks from the SHIELD safe house and the Captain secured the area before they went into the apartment.

“Okay,” Darcy said, falling down on one of the chairs and feeling tired all of the sudden. “You fire up the laptop, contact SHIELD and it’ll be all over in a few hours. At this point I can basically fall asleep on my feet.”

She belatedly realised that she had just basically given her commanding officer, Captain America, an order, but he just grinned at her and did as she asked.

“Oh, before I forget,” Darcy added, “I got the data, too.” She procured it from her bra and the Captain stared at her for a moment, mouth hanging open.

“I specifically ordered you not to,” he then said carefully neutral.

“No, you ordered me to abort,” Darcy disagreed, “but I only needed 30 more seconds for the transfer to complete anyway, so I thought I might as well do it. I thought you were testing me.”

He looked at her intently. “That is definitely something we should address: I’m not testing you and you can trust me on that, alright?”

“Yeah,” Darcy said softly. “I figured that out the moment you broke me out of a German prison.”

“Good,” he nodded thoughtfully. “Your minor insubordination aside, why didn’t the authorities take it when they arrested you?”

Darcy shrugged. “They never searched me so thoroughly. And a bra is a pretty good hiding spot.”

He stared at her for a moment before he shook his head in disbelief. “Okay, I’m sure SHIELD will be happy that at least something helpful will come out of this complete SNAFU that is now your first mission. And if we have time – and if you’re not too exhausted – we can look at the data later. Might give us some clues about who killed Kiesewetter. Not that it is our jurisdiction or our mission, but I figure you’re curious?”

Darcy immediately sat up straight. “Bet your ass I am. I can already see my ultimate revenge movie play in front of my eyes. Where we’ll be on the run from the authorities for weeks trying to clear my name and the data is our only clue. I’m totally gonna tell all the other SHIELD newbies that’s what happened once we’re back stateside.”

He grinned. “That’s good to know. We should always coordinate our stories.”

“Please,” Darcy snorted, “all the SHIELD newbies will be too awed by your mere presence to _ever_ question what you’re telling them. You can probably fuck with half of SHIELD just based on your reputation that you’re the personification of everything that is true and good in this world.”

His grin fell a little and Darcy asked herself what she had said that would lead to this reaction. Not that she would talk with Captain America about his feelings or anything. That would be weird and inappropriate. And for him this would soon turn into a distant memory. Hopefully by this time tomorrow it would all be over and they would be back stateside safe and sound. She doubted that she would see him again after this.

Meanwhile he had already turned towards the laptop, fired it up and logged in. Darcy could tell the moment something did not go according to plan, because he stared at the screen in disbelief for a whole ten seconds.

Darcy was immediately at high alert, her tiredness forgotten. “What’s up?” she wanted to know.

He looked up at her, confused. “You’re on the Interpol red notice,” he then told her. “The notice appeared immediately because I’m an operative close to where you were last seen.”

Darcy gaped at him for a moment. “What?! Who did this?”

He turned the computer around so that she could see it too. “SHIELD.”

Darcy stared at the screen where her picture, her SHIELD ID picture, and the notice were flaring in bright red. She pinched herself. That was another curveball she hadn’t expected. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she then whispered. “And really, I’m innocent.”

“It doesn’t and I know,” the Captain agreed. “It’s…” He visibly struggled with the new information for a moment. “I can’t find an explanation for this. Red notice means shoot first and ask questions later. People like me and the STRIKE team get called in for a red notice. Why would you appear here? Why would SHIELD do something like that?” He dragged his hand through his hair, clearly at a loss.

“Maybe it’s a mistake?” Darcy tried to explain it. “When was this posted? Maybe earlier today just to be on the safe side?”

The Captain clicked on the notice. “It’s fresh,” he then said, “as in less than 30 minutes old. Posted by SHIELD Germany.”

“So they posted it after they found I escaped from prison,” Darcy stated in disbelief.

They were silent for a moment.

“We have to leave,” the Captain announced suddenly, getting up again.

Darcy stared at him in shock. “Hold on a second, what?”

“We should get out of here,” the Captain said impatiently, already gathering their stuff and looking through the drawers of the apartment.

“Let’s not overreact,” Darcy tried to stop him. “They’re SHIELD. They’re the good guys.”

“Something is rotten here,” he explained while he emptied to contents of the drawer (money, passports, clothes, food, burner cell phones) into the next available bag. “Somebody is after you. You’re my responsibility and I’m not leaving anything to chance. Let’s go.”

Darcy stared at him entirely flabbergasted. “We’re fleeing from SHIELD?”

“We have to figure this out without the threat of us being detected,” he explained impatiently. “Something’s definitely wrong with the local SHIELD team. We can’t trust them.”

Darcy slowly rose from her chair. “Okay… you’re the expert. Only a few more hours on the run, right?”

“We’ll figure this out and I’ll get you back to DC safe and sound,” he promised. “Grab your stuff. Let’s go.”

They were already by the door, when Darcy ran back towards the table and grabbed the SHIELD issue laptop. “In case we need to contact anybody or research anything,” she explained when she caught the Captain’s inquisitive look. “I’ll disable the location services once we’re out of here.”

They rushed out of the apartment building and then hurried down the street. They ducked into a deserted driveway when the first string of black SUVs passed by, who then stopped in front of the apartment building. A heavily armed task force entered the building without regard for doors or personal property.

Darcy looked up at Steve, breathing heavily.

“Shit.”

~*~

As it turns out: Captain America indeed has an office, because even the First Avenger occasionally needs to battle SHIELD’s bureaucracy and have a place to file his mission reports.

Steve is sitting at his desk, absorbed in whatever he’s reading on his computer screen. Clint marches right in and flings himself onto the visitor’s chair, while Darcy remains standing in the doorway, a little unsure.

“Steve, my man,” Clint begins, “your wife and I, we came here to update you about the company gossip and I’m telling you, it’s wild, Steve, _wild_.”

He looks up sharply from his work. He shoots Darcy a questioning look, but she just shrugs in response. Then he frowns at Clint for a moment, which is all the invitation he needs to continue.

“So,” Clint says conversationally, “the biggest pool is currently on the question if Darcy is expecting a girl or a boy.”

“What?!” Darcy exclaims.

“Apparently, as the story goes, you two hooked up at the SHIELD holiday party – well, _you_ , Darcy, seduced him, sad, lonely Captain America, and ended up getting yourself pregnant. So you guys eloped so that Steve, with his old-timey values, could make an honest woman out of you.”

“I trapped Captain America in a marriage?” Darcy says, flabbergasted.

“Yup,” Clint nods.

“But I never was at the holiday party, I was on a mission that whole week,” Steve points out.

“I didn’t attend either,” Darcy adds. “We were doing group exercises in Bumfuck, Arizona.”

Clint shrugs. “I’m not saying it’s true or logical. That’s the gossip.”

“Anything else you want us to know?” Steve asks.

“Nah, apart from that it’s mostly boring. People asking themselves what you guys did during the honeymoon, you know. People noticed the state of your hair, Steve. Both facial and head.”

“You said it was wild,” Darcy says.

“Well, wild as in: Everybody knows and it’s probably the most talked-about thing here at SHIELD in years, maybe even decades. There wasn’t even that much buzz when you were found in the Arctic.”

“Because that was mostly need-to-know,” Steve comments.

“True,” Clint agrees. “But yeah, people are mostly trying to figure out when and how you two hooked up to begin with. You surprised everyone – including yourself as I know – and everybody around here is so invested in your love life, Steve… So yeah, the last 10 days have been wild as far as I can see. Nobody has figured out the Thor connection yet. Maybe I should get to that. Add some spark to the gossip, pun totally intended.”

“Please don’t do this,” Darcy says, “I really don’t need all my Avengers affiliation known. I prefer people not to know that Thor is my friend.”

“Okay,” Clint says, surprisingly sincere, “good, but I’m warning you, I need to get my fix somehow while Nat is gone. Man, I can’t wait for her to come back and find out.” Clint rubs his hands together gleefully.

Steve sighs. “Any chance I can be the first to tell her? And explain everything?”

“Not a chance in hell. Anyway,” Clint gets up from the chair, “Darcy has some stuff to discuss with you. I’ll leave you newlyweds to it.”

After Clint leaves them alone, an uncomfortable silence settles between them. Steve looks at her questioningly and Darcy takes a deep breath, closes the door and sits down on the chair Clint vacated.

“Are you-” Darcy begins carefully, “are you okay?”

Steve is visibly taken aback by that question. He probably expected her to be all business. “As well as can be expected,” he then answers honestly. “Work helps, it’s a good distraction.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m here.”

“They’re not letting me go on missions yet,” Steve continues, “but I’m in training, new recruits and all that… Punching things.”

“Is that what you do when you’re not doing missions for SHIELD?” Darcy asks, curious. She never really thought what Captain America might do when he’s not out saving the world, one mission at a time.

“Yeah… Mostly training exercises… developing my skills and all. Both mental and physical. I have regular sparring sessions with Nat… we do stuff with the STRIKE team, tactics, weapons training. I deal with some recruits, those, that might make it into the higher up levels.”

“Plenty to keep you occupied,” Darcy comments.

“Yeah… The first few weeks after New York I spent alone… in a hut in the middle of nowhere. This is better.”

“I totally understand that.”

They’re quiet for a moment. “So,” he then prompts, “Clint said you wanted to discuss something?”

“Oh, right,” Darcy collects her bearings, “I don’t really want to discuss anything. I wanted to ask you a favour. Try to use my high-level Avengers connections while they last,” she jokes half-heartedly.

He gives her a loop-sided grin. “Shoot,” he simply says.

“I can’t access my own file, you know, the mission report, and I was just wondering if you would look it up for me. You probably have higher clearance than me. Not that I’m asking what your level is, but… you know,” she shrugs. “I just want to know what I did in Frankfurt. Maybe it’ll trigger something.”

“That’s a great idea! Yeah, I’ll do that. I hadn’t even thought of that yet.”

He turns towards his computer immediately to look it up. Darcy can tell the exact moment something does not go according to plan. He stares at the screen for a second, a crease forming on his brow and then he hits the mouse with more force than necessary.

“Everything all right?” Darcy asks.

As an answer he turns the screen to show her. It shows the exact same message Darcy had received not 30 minutes ago. He can’t access the file either.

“I have level 8 clearance, that doesn’t make any sense,” Steve says, more to himself.

“That is weird,” Darcy agrees.

“We both remember from the briefing that it was simple data retrieval, it shouldn’t require executive level access. Also, you were _involved_ , high level clearance or not, there’s no reason to keep you from your files. Or me for that matter.”

They are quiet for a moment, trying to come up with a plausible explanation for it.

“I’ll… I’ll post a support ticket?” Darcy then offers. “With IT? Maybe it’s just a computer glitch or something?”

“Yeah,” he says absentmindedly. “Maybe.”

Darcy is about to stand up and leave, when Steve speaks again. “Thor contacted me,” he says out of the blue, “to congratulate me. And to give us our blessing. It was heart-wrenching breaking it to him that it’s not real.”

“Thor is such a big softie. And a good friend.”

“Yeah, he is. He’ll be back stateside soon. I’m looking forward to seeing him again.”

“Me too,” Darcy agrees. She looks at Steve calculatingly for a moment, trying to decide how open she wants to be with him and then decides to just go for it. They’re in the same boat after all. “Maybe it’s just me,” she says, trying to appear casual, “because I’m paranoid and was cooped up alone at my place for the last few days, but… isn’t it weird that SHIELD didn’t contact the other Avengers?”

He frowns at her. “What do you mean?”

“Clint found out via the rumour mill, Thor found out via Jane, the Black Widow doesn’t know yet and I’m pretty sure Tony Stark and Dr Banner don’t know either… isn’t that weird? Shouldn’t they have been put on high alert the moment you went missing? Because either somebody was strong and dangerous enough to kidnap Captain America, which would definitely justify the Avengers’ involvement, or Captain America had become a traitor, in which case, let’s be honest here, you’d need the other Avengers to stop him.”

He nods thoughtfully at that.

“But SHIELD did nothing,” Darcy sums it up. “And I really want to know why.”

“That’s been bugging me too,” he agrees. “But it’s SHIELD… you get used to the ‘we’re doing everything for a good reason and this is above your clearance level’ thing they have going on.”

“And they’re the good guys, I know. But still…” Darcy trails off.

“Yeah, I want to know too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, there's a reference to the tv show Chuck in here. Congrats for spotting it ;-)
> 
> Also, [13 Questions to Ask Before Getting Married](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/23/fashion/weddings/marriage-questions.html). I may or may not have filled that out for Steve and Darcy.


	5. Chapter 5

### Chapter 5

Darcy is back in Steve’s office two days later, again sitting in his visitor’s chair, waiting for him.

Steve stares at her for a moment. “You’re supposed to be on medical leave,” he tells her without malice.

She grins at him. “Aw, I love it when you go all concerned spouse on me.”

He shakes his head good-naturedly and grabs his tablet for his meeting. “And I’m already late for my next strategy meeting, so if you need to discuss anything, we gotta do the walk and talk.”

“And now I’m being side-lined by your work,” she jokes. “The honeymoon period is over.”

“Hey, you’re the one who insists on working even though you should be resting,” Steve shoots back.

“I’m doing my own research and I can do this best at SHIELD, with their resources,” Darcy explains, then gets up and follows him out of the door. “Have you heard anything from their investigation?”

“I haven’t,” Steve says.

“Which is weird,” Darcy points out and Steve silently agrees. “Anyway, I did some digging in what I can access and SHIELD says that my mission was successful, right?”

Steve nods.

“The guy died.”

Steve stops short to stare at her. “What?”

“Thorsten Kiesewetter,” Darcy points at the report she printed out. “My German is _very_ rusty, but I accessed the police report via the SHIELD database and he died not 24 hours after my successful mission. I think it was ruled a suicide.”

“Hand me the report,” Steve says and then skims through it quickly. “It was ruled a suicide; he was found shot in his own bed, by his housekeeper. They say that they have no reason to suspect foul play.”

“I know, logically, suicide makes sense,” Darcy says pensively. “When I lived in London people always said that suicide was common among city boys, among investment bankers. And how would the German police know that he was probably embroiled in financing international terrorism, right? But, yeah, his death is super fishy.”

“So, if he was murdered after your successful mission…” Steve begins, “either someone got wind of what you’d done, that he was on SHIELD’s radar, and finished him off before he could make a mistake or because he was no longer trustworthy.”

“Or there was something in the data I collected that lead to his death,” Darcy finishes his thought for him. “Maybe we weren’t the only ones who stole it.”

They walk next to each other in silence for a moment. “Can we access the data somehow?” Steve asks. “If you retrieved it, SHIELD should have it.”

“Good point… I can try but I need access to the case file first to go from there.”

“So we’re basically waiting until SHIELD fixes a glitch? For SHIELD IT to get to it?”

“That and…” she hesitates for a moment. “We have to decide how much we want to do, really. SHIELD is looking into it, right? If we start our own thing, it might lead to questions being asked.”

“Do you have a problem with that?”

“No… do you?”

“I want to know just as much as you,” Steve says honestly. “Let’s not wait. We can do as much digging as possible while SHIELD does their own thing. Once we see the mission report, we can go from there as well.”

“You got it.”

~*~

They walked towards the nearest station and sat down on one of the benches on the platform. The area was deserted so far, morning rush hour would only begin in a few hours. Agent Lewis had checked all their electronic devices to make sure that the location services were disabled. They both knew that they didn’t have much time until the local SHIELD team would organise a manhunt in the area.

“So,” she began.

“So,” Steve repeated.

“We should probably get out of here quickly. It won’t take them long to go after us.”

“The first local train out of here leaves in less than 30 minutes,” Steve explained after a glance at the schedule that was hanging on display behind them.

“Let’s assume that the local SHIELD station will use their resources to hunt me – and in extension you – down, we should probably get to a populated area and disappear into the crowd.”

“Frankfurt airport?” he suggested.

“That works.” She nodded. “We just have to make sure that we’re not caught on too many cameras. And it makes sense to go to a major transportation hub to make our escape.”

“But we can’t escape from there yet,” Steve told her. “SHIELD Germany is probably keeping a tight watch on our aliases, passports, and credit cards. They have access to the SHIELD issued information so there’s no hiding our movements from them if we use them. We’ll call SHIELD HQ from the airport and they’ll help us out.”

“I hope so,” Agent Lewis mumbled. “I’ve had enough surprises for a lifetime.”

“An ordinary lifetime maybe, but not for the lifetime of a field agent,” Steve pointed out. He looked at her searchingly for a moment. “How’re you holding up?”

“I’m okay. Get me some coffee soon and I’ll be good for another few hours,” she said, sounding a little too chipper. “It’s almost like the science all-nighters Jane would pull when I was interning for her. Only with a little more adrenaline and international espionage.”

They took the train into the city and then changed into another train for the airport. They both kept a lookout for anything unusual but there were just tired, early morning commuters and one security team on the train. They didn’t see any police on the platforms and only met the first patrol at the airport, where a pair of officers from the federal police lazily surveyed the first travellers coming in.

They found a spot at a deserted arrival area and sat down. Agent Lewis went to get coffee and Steve took one of the burner cells and dialled the emergency SHIELD number. He reckoned that they had five, maybe ten minutes until the local SHIELD team would track their whereabouts via the call. But they could always disappear into the crowd at the airport.

Steve was routed to an automated SHIELD switchboard, he stated his name and ID and said that he wanted to either speak with Director Fury or Assistant Director Hill. Steve didn’t have the patience to make his way to explaining the situation to any lower level agents.

“What the fuck were you thinking, Rogers?” an unknown voice answered.

Steve was taken aback for a second. He had clearly specified that he only wanted to speak to Hill or Fury. He had never heard this voice before.

“Who are you?” Steve asked.

“I’m the guy who’s commanding you back to SHIELD.”

“What’s your name and your clearance level?” Steve demanded.

“Baker, level 9.”

“I’ve never heard of you,” Steve said suspiciously.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve never heard of me. I outrank you and I’m on the SHIELD emergency line because Hill and Director Fury are unavailable. I command you to surrender to SHIELD Germany immediately.”

Steve was both flabbergasted by the tone and the content for a moment. He didn’t understand what this unknown SHIELD agent wanted, what his agenda was. They couldn’t trust SHIELD Germany, but Steve hadn’t even gotten to explaining that part yet.

“That’s not a good idea,” Steve countered tersely. “Surrendering to the German authorities. I have reason to believe-”

“I don’t care what the fuck you have reason to believe, you have to come in and bring Agent Lewis, she’s wanted-”

“Agent Lewis is innocent.”

The agent laughed snidely. “How can you be certain? You’ve known her for less than 12 hours and didn’t know about her whereabouts at the time the crime took place. You’re in no position to judge here, Captain.”

“I think my experience as her superior officer should be taken into consideration,” Steve said matter-of-factly.

Agent Baker took a deep breath and apparently decided to switch tactics. When he spoke again he was calmer and less confrontational. “We’re SHIELD, we’re the good guys. Obviously we can’t let this stand. This… death would look like a government sanctioned assassination. We have to follow due process. In Germany.”

“SHIELD never cares about due process,” Steve objected. “They just take over jurisdiction. And in any case, I don’t think Germany is safe.”

He noticed that Agent Lewis had returned and sat down next to him, looking at him quizzically. She sipped her coffee and grimaced when she didn’t like the taste.

“I request emergency evac-”

“Has Agent Lewis screwed with your mind somehow?” Agent Blake interrupted him, pretending to be concerned. Now he was obviously going with the fake concern route. Steve couldn’t figure out what his agenda was. This wasn’t supposed to be difficult. He and Agent Lewis just needed to get out of Frankfurt as fast as possible. “Germany is an ally and their local SHIELD office is top notch. Did Agent Lewis persuade you to attack three of our own?”

“So Unverzagt, Jost and Schneider were SHIELD agents?” Steve asked to confirm. Next to him Agent Lewis sucked in a surprised breath and all colour drained from her face.

“Of course they were. What makes you think otherwise?”

Steve didn’t even bother to answer. He ended the call right there, dropped the phone to the ground and crushed it with his foot.

“That wasn’t a good call I guess?” she asked, voice carefully neutral.

He looked at her. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she immediately reassured him.

“It’s not. I have no idea what’s going on. SHIELD HQ is not going to help us out right now.”

“So what do we do now? Surrender? We don’t really have any other options. We have no resources. I mean, I can surrender, you did nothing wrong.”

Steve thought for a moment. He was clearly at a loss. Agent Lewis was right. They had no resources and they both were probably on the Interpol Red Notice by now. But at the same time: They couldn’t surrender. Steve was fairly sure that Darcy wouldn’t survive the day if they did. He remembered what the agents had said at the police station. Accidents happened… He had no idea what was going on with SHIELD, but for the moment they couldn’t trust them. They had to figure out another way out of Europe.

He took a deep breath when he suddenly had an idea. “We’re not surrendering. Not at the moment. We’ll book all our aliases on different flights out of Frankfurt but won’t be on any of those. There’s a non-SHIELD safe house in Luxemburg, a three hours’ drive. We’ll steal a car and go there.”

~*~

Darcy and Steve split in front of his meeting room Steve was headed to and Darcy makes her way to a work area to do some more research. As she’s leaving she walks into the Black Widow. Well, maybe not walk into, she doubts that the meeting is an accident. The Black Widow appears seemingly out of nowhere and Darcy stops short in a way she would find comical were she not frightened for her life in that exact instant.

The Black Widow stares her down for a moment and then starts circling her, silently, assessing Darcy critically. Darcy stands stock still and is suddenly hyper aware of all her flaws and all her terrible life choices, including the cupcake she ate two days ago and that one time she skipped PE in high school to smoke cigarettes in the park.

“So, you’re the wife,” the Black Widow finally says, while she continues circling her.

“I’m sure you know-” Darcy begins.

“Yes, I know everything I need to know.”

Darcy shuts her mouth with a snap.

The Black Widow stops to stand in front of Darcy, hands on her hips. “I never really considered you for our golden boy.”

“Oh, I know,” Darcy mutters, blushing.

She stares at Darcy, one eyebrow raised in question.

“We all knew who you were trying to set him up with,” Darcy explains quickly. “Captain America’s love life was… _is_ the favourite topic around here.”

The Black Widow nods mutely. “I’ll need to assess. Obviously you already have the Thor connection in your favour and we protect our own. And I know all there is to know about you from official and not so official sources,” the Black Widow says evenly and yet still manages to make it sound like a threat.

Darcy swallows hard. “I wouldn’t expect anything less,” she then manages to say.

The Black Widow pursues her lips. “Steve is important to me,” she continues, “important to all of us,” she emphasises. “We care about him more than he thinks.” Now this is definitely a threat.

“I know.”

“Anything from your past I should know about? If you don’t tell me now, I’ll find out later anyway.”

Darcy shakes her head. “No, nothing.”

“For your sake I hope that’s true,” the Black Widow says before she disappears down the hallway.

Darcy stares after her for a moment and then walks into the other direction. “So much for high fives and drink invitations,” she mumbles to herself.

~*~

Darcy slept fitfully in the car on the way to Luxembourg. She was tired, her body demanded rest and her inner clock was completely out of synch, but then she had also the adrenaline and the caffeine coursing through her system, making her strangely alert. She started dozing off an hour behind Wiesbaden and she vaguely remembered apologising to Captain Rogers shortly beforehand for not being a good travel companion. But then, the silence in the car had been terse and awkward, so sleeping to avoid it hadn’t been the worst idea.

They arrived in Luxembourg by mid-morning. They took the license plates off the car, ditched it at the outskirts of the city and the Captain navigated them to an apartment building in the lower city. They took the stairs to the top where one apartment took up the entire floor and the Captain keyed in the security code. Darcy noticed that there were no names on doors or bells.

The apartment they entered was spartan but serviceable. Darcy took a cursory look around. It looked like nobody had been here for months. “Whose place is this?” she asked. “Can we trust them?”

“It’s Natasha’s,” the Captain explained. “The Black Widow’s.”

“And SHIELD doesn’t know about this?”

“It’s off the books, from back in the day…” he trailed off.

“It’s an unusual location,” Darcy surmises. “Luxembourg is hardly a metropolis.”

“Easy access to a discreet banking system,” the Captain pointed out. “That’s worth something. And in any case, she has several safe houses all over the world. I think by now I know most of them.”

“Are you guys safe house buddies?” Darcy said half-jokingly.

“There’s certain information she trusts me with,” he just said mysteriously.

“Can we contact her somehow?”

He shook his head no. “She’s on a mission in Lahore with Clint,” he explained. “That’s why she volunteered me to be your supervising agent, remember?”

“Maybe we want to try some of your other Avengers buddies next,” Darcy suggested. “My one contact is at the Arctic Circle with his brilliant astrophysicist girlfriend.”

“That only leaves Tony and Bruce.”

“That’s a small list,” Darcy said pensively. “Do you have any other superhero friends?”

“They don’t really grow on trees…” he said with a small smile, “and most of my acquaintances are SHIELD affiliated…”

“Speaking of SHIELD: You should tell me the whole story. What the hell happened at the police station?”

The Captain recounted the whole evening in excruciating detail. How he’d contacted SHIELD for assistance the moment Darcy had been taken in by authorities. How the two agents had turned up and acted strangely. How the third agent had been even weirder. He told her everything about their overheard conversations in German, especially the part where they were conspiring that she wouldn’t make it to the prison alive.

“Yeah, that is shifty as hell,” Darcy judged.

“And then,” the Captain shrugged, “I figured it would be best to get you out of there. I didn’t expect all… this…” he trailed off.

“We should probably find out what’s going on with SHIELD Germany,” Darcy suggested. “That’ll probably help us.”

“Yeah, that’s probably worth figuring out... But how?”

Darcy shrugged. “Good question. I really don’t want to fire up the SHIELD issue laptop we have. Even though I disabled the tracking beacon, they might be trying to track it remotely or something because they’ll know that we took it from the safe house. We should use it only if we really need it and then dump it.”

“Maybe the data will help us. Thorsten Kiesewetter’s data. We should take a look. It’s good that we have it; that was some quick thinking on your part.”

“Thanks, Cap, but it might also have led to all this… maybe it’s the data they’re after.”

He looked at her strangely for a moment and Darcy asked herself if she had done something wrong. But then his next sentence surprised her.

“Now you really should call me Steve,” he suggested. “Addressing me by my rank is very suspicious.”

“Of course, Cap-” Darcy stopped herself and grimaced. “I don’t know if I can get used to it.”

“You don’t have to get used to it, it’s just for the length of our run from authorities.”

Darcy nodded in understanding. “And once we’re back home safe and sound, everything will return to normal.”

~*~

“You’re no longer my friend,” Tony texts Steve out of the blue a few days later, which is shortly followed by

“Friendship over!!!” with a lot of angry emojis and a whole string of the knife emoji.

“I always knew you liked Thor better than me”

“Disappointed, Rogers. Disappointed”

“(Imagine you giving someone the ‘Captain America is disappointed in you’ stare, that’s how I’m looking at you right now)”

“How does it feel to be at the receiving end of that?”

“But seriously, I’m offended and I expect grovelling.”

Steve stares at the wall of incoming messages for a moment, trying to figure out what Tony means by all of it.

“I don’t care that you were probably busy with honeymoon sex for a week, you could’ve told me!”

Oh, so Tony had found out.

“Should’ve told me!”

“Even before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! saying ‘I do’”

Then his phone rings with the caller ID indicating that it’s Tony. Steve takes a deep breath to prepare himself. Tony and he, they are friendlier now, but still, after a call from Tony Steve mostly feels like he needs to punch things. Tony has the unique talent to get under his skin. Always.

“Why am I the last person to know that you’re married?” Tony starts without preamble. He actually sounds outraged and a little hurt. “ _Thor_ , who’s at the Arctic Circle, knew before I did.”

“Well, it’s not that easy-” Steve begins.

“Not an excuse,” Tony cuts him off. “Also, I’m telling Pepper, Rhodey, and Bruce.”

“No, don’t,” Steve immediately rushes to stop him. “Please don’t.”

“Why? Do you want to deliver the happy news yourself? Not that you’re doing a great job or anything,” he says accusatorily. “You’ve been married for almost three weeks now! Three weeks! And didn’t say anything. Honeymooning with somebody in the Mediterranean is not an excuse. We all know that you know how technology works. I didn’t even know that you were serious with somebody! This is an outrage! I-”

“Tony,” Steve finally manages to interrupt his tirade, “it’s more complicated than you can imagine. I had and have good reason to be silent.”

“Ashamed of your wife?” Tony jokes. “Regrets already?”

“Haha,” Steve says humourlessly. “If only you knew.”

Tony is silent at the other end of the line for a moment and Steve thinks that he might have shocked the unflappable Tony Stark into silence. That would be quite a feat. “Tell it to Uncle Tony,” he then simply says.

Steve takes a deep breath. “Well, there’s the thing that we don’t really know how and why we got married to begin with.”

“Say what now?” Tony sounds honestly surprised. “Is this a Las Vegas-style ‘we woke up married’ thing?”

“Kind of?” Steve offers.

Tony sucks in a sharp breath and then clucks his tongue reproachfully. “Steven!” he begins. “I would never! But then…” Tony’s voice turns gleeful. “Now I can give Captain America a stern talking-to because this type of behaviour is not-”

“No, let me explain,” Steve interrupts him. He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Please don’t interrupt me. Fact is: She’s a junior SHIELD agent, I barely know her. I was her CO on her first mission four weeks back. We flew out to Germany, apparently completed the mission and then we disappeared, without a trace so far. From the paperwork we know that we got married a week later, on Malta of all places, and then SHIELD found us in Brazil another week later. We both woke up there, in a hospital, without memories of the past two weeks. We couldn’t – and still can’t – remember what we did during that time.”

Tony is silent on the other end of the line for another moment. “Are you serious?” he then asks in disbelief.

“Yes.”

“The troll side of Steve Rogers is not fucking with me?” Tony doesn’t sound fully convinced.

“I would not make fun of these things. Honestly.”

“So, you two disappeared, got married and re-appeared on another continent two weeks later,” Tony clarifies.

Steve nods even though he knows that Tony can’t see it. “That’s basically it.”

“Were you guys taken? Or did you just abscond with that baby agent? Did she ensnare and trap you?” Tony sounds incredulous.

“We don’t know. But I doubt it’s the latter. She’s as clueless as I am.”

“Okay, the matter of your surprise marriage aside… Why weren’t we notified? You were unaccounted for, for a week before your marriage!” Tony is turning increasingly exasperated. “Captain America doesn’t simply disappear. Chances were good that you’d either gone rogue or been kidnapped, both of which are situations that would warrant the Avengers’ involvement. We could’ve- _should’ve_ helped finding you.”

“That’s what Darcy says, too,” Steve agrees. He’s happy that the conversation is now going in that direction and Tony is no longer personally offended.

“Darcy?”

“Darcy Lewis, the woman I married.”

“Your wife,” Tony states.

“My wife, yes.”

“I just wanted to hear you say it,” Tony says lightly. “I know her name, obviously. I ran all the background checks on her. Came out clean, by the way. But wow, Captain America has a surprise wife.” Tony sounds awed for a moment. “Do you want me to do some digging?” he then offers. “I can let Jarvis run some algorithms. I don’t have access to SHIELD’s gigantic infrastructure anymore and it’s still a gigantic needle in a haystack, but I can try.”

“Thanks, but SHIELD’s already on it.” Tony harrumphs in disapproval at that. “And Darcy has started her own investigation piggybacking SHIELD’s to find out what we did.”

“Good, I like your wife already. She seems to have a sensible head on her shoulders.”

“Thank you.”

“You can’t take credit for that, you apparently didn’t choose her. Be happy that so far she’s turned out okay, not a harpy or anything.”

“Thanks,” Steve just says drily. “I’ll let her know that you approve.”

“Trust me, I’m already on it.”

“No, Tony, whatever you’re doing, don’t-”

“Too late, Rogers. You’ll find out soon enough.”

~*~

The Captain let Darcy nap for an hour while he searched the apartment for supplies. When Darcy woke, she found that he’d piled everything on the kitchen table.

“What do we have?” Darcy asked.

“Some blank passports issued by the authorities of Luxembourg, Germany, the UK, South Africa, and Canada. A couple thousand US Dollars, British Pounds and Euro, a few prepaid credit cards and two Glocks with several rounds. There’s a few mission stuff as well, comms, surveillance equipment and the like.”

“Clothes?” Darcy asked, smelling her t-shirt and grimacing at the stench.

He nodded. “A few things and stuff to change your appearance.”

“Any electronics like a laptop and a phone?”

He shook his head no.

“Dammit, I was hoping for at least one phone capable of performing encrypted calls so that we could give Avengers Tower in New York a call and get Iron Man to lift us out of here.”

“It wouldn’t work here anyway,” the Captain explained. “Nat always keeps her apartments clean of electronic traces. There’s always a device that jams all form communication in the apartment to avoid it getting compromised.”

“Can we disable it somehow?”

“If you can find it… Nat is kind of paranoid and extremely protective of her safe spaces.”

“And yet she trusted you.”

“Yeah, she did…” he said pensively. “Anyway, we should probably invest some of those euros in some burner phones and a computer.”

“Will the Black Widow be okay with us taking her stuff?”

“What choice do we have?” he asked back. “And we’ll need much more if Tony doesn’t airlift us out of here.”

They made their way into the city shortly afterwards, the Captain leading the way. Darcy felt the urge to look behind her on every occasion. She felt exposed and paranoid and she had the feeling that the Captain was out of his element as well. Darcy let him handle buying electronic equipment, a laptop and prepaid cell phones for both of them, afterwards they found a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi to set it up.

Darcy was about to plug in the USB drive into the port, when the Captain stopped her by placing his hand on hers. “Do you think the drive is equipped with a homing programme?” he asked quietly.

Darcy looked at the drive for a moment. She had learned the basic stuff about SHIELD issue technology, but couldn’t tell how advanced the device in her hand was. “It might be, but what choice do we have? I can make sure though that we only need to use the drive once.”

“How?”

“Upload it onto a secure server.”

“SHIELD will find it.”

Darcy shook her head. “Not this one. I have access to Jane’s research servers. I hid and secured them pretty well. I can run it through a few other servers first, too, to obscure the trail. They might find it eventually, but we’re only playing for time anyway, aren’t we?”

He nodded.

“If there’s a homing programme: Once I plug this in, how much time do you think we have?” Darcy asked.

The Captain shrugged. “Difficult to say. I don’t know the technology to estimate how long it’ll take them to realise that the homing device has been activated.”

“It’s just a matter of seconds,” Darcy explained. “But then they’ll have to find us here, send people.”

“There’s no local SHIELD office that could send agents straight away,” he told her. “So it depends in how far they’ve traced our movements and how close the nearest team is. We might have an hour or so.”

“Okay, to be on the save side: I get this done and secure the data. Then we’ll destroy the drive and change locations.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll contact Tony from our second location.”

The Captain hovered while Darcy transferred the data from the drive to a secure server in record time. She then drowned the drive in her water and the Captain stepped on it for good measure before they got up and left. They found another location with free Wi-Fi in a quiet side street at the other end of town and sat down at a table that offered a good view of the street. While the Captain got his phone out to start calling New York, Darcy started decrypting the files.

“Okay,” Darcy said after a few seconds, making the Captain look up from the phone, “the encryption is laughable. But I need your German here. The only thing I understand are the numbers which are seven and eight-digit euro amounts.” She scrolled through the data some more. “And US Dollars. And Canadian Dollars, all the currencies. Wait, here’s some stuff in English.”

The Captain scooted over to look at the screen as well, the phone momentarily forgotten.

“Lots of financial gibberish,” Darcy said, skimming the content of his Kiesewetter’s email in box. “As you would expect in his business. Just all the trades he did, trading orders, reports, that kind of thing.”

“It’s difficult to find anything unusual in that kind of data without some serious analysis,” the Captain said. “Maybe we should break it down, find out what his usual trading pattern was and figure out what he might’ve done?”

“I have to take your word for it,” Darcy agreed and scrolled through the emails quickly, trying to get a feeling about Kiesewetter’s business was usually conducted.

“Wait,” the Captain said when something caught his eye and he pointed to a bunch of German emails. “Those look like SHIELD addresses.”

Darcy clicked on one of if it. “Shit,” she swore, “they are.” She couldn’t understand the content of the emails but saw the large numbers in all forms of currencies in them. “Look at the numbers,” she said.

“They’re authorizing large transactions. What exactly they don’t say, it’s just trading orders.”

Darcy went through the email chain. “This goes back months.” She was speechless for a moment and then flabbergasted. “How stupid are they?” She shook her head in disbelief. “Why would they use their SHIELD resources? So unprofessional. Did they think they wouldn’t get caught?”

“Maybe the whole office in Wiesbaden is compromised. Maybe they’re all in it. Maybe that’s why they didn’t think they would get caught.”

“But then they must have connections,” Darcy said thoughtfully. “The guy in DC, who tried to get you back in. Maybe there’s a larger network than SHIELD Germany at play.”

“Can you search of SHIELD personnel in those emails?” he suggested.

Darcy searched for emails ending in the generic shield.gov domain and stared at the results for a moment – there were over a hundred. The Captain leaned forward and started scrolling through the results.

“There’s a Baker from DC,” the Captain said, “might be our guy. And it’s not only him and the Germans, there’s Montgomery from Sydney, Durand from Paris, Miller who’s stationed in Addis Ababa, Cojocaru in Bucharest.” He stopped himself and stared at Darcy. “That’s a worldwide network. What are they doing?”

Darcy shrugged helplessly. “Escapes me. Anyway, I think that gives us enough, don’t you think?” she looked pointedly at the phone in his hand. “Time to get Tony Stark involved?”

“Right,” the Captain said and dialled a number from memory while Darcy closed down the laptop, packed it up and looked outside.

She looked back at the Captain when he let out a frustrated sound and hung up only to dial a number again.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He frowned at the phone. “It won’t let me go through, I’m stuck in the switchboard.”

“Who are you trying to reach?”

“Tony, well, more like Jarvis, his AI. The system is usually voice activated, Jarvis would recognise my voice and put me through, but I can’t reach Jarvis.”

Darcy was stumped for a moment. “Maybe it’s the number you’re calling from? The system might be set to only put this Jarvis on the line when it’s a certain area code or a certain number. I doubt that he has stuff in place to accept calls from Luxembourg.”

“That’s not how it works,” the Captain disagreed, sounding confused. “I should have worldwide access no matter what. I’ve used this before.”

Darcy shrugged because she couldn’t help him in this instant and then the car that had driven down the street just a minute ago passed by the window again, driving slowly with the two passengers surveilling the area closely. Darcy frowned at it and looked after it and down the street. Then a black SUV with tinted windows drove past.

Darcy grabbed the Captain’s arm.

“Hang up,” she said, grabbing the phone from his ear.

He looked at her, clearly confused. “What?”

Darcy threw the phone to the ground and stepped on it. “We have to run. They found us.”

The Captain stared at her for a fraction of a second, grabbed his bag and then her hand, and bolted towards the back of the coffee shop where Darcy hoped was a back entrance. They made it into a small backyard and then turned onto busy shopping street. The Captain began pushing through the crowd, but Darcy pulled at his hand and urged him to slow down.

“Don’t,” she hissed, “don’t run. That’s too conspicuous. Don’t run, walk.”

He frowned at her for a moment, but then did as she told him. Darcy looked behind her, but couldn’t see anything. She noticed the Captain looking around, too.

“Do you see anything?” she whispered.

“No, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

They took a right turn onto another street and then an immediate left. He ushered her into a bus that was just stopping close by, which they left after five stops. Darcy hoped the Captain knew where they were going because she lost her orientation quickly.

They made their way down another street and stopped at a corner. “How did they find us?” the Captain ran a hand through his hair.

“The homing programme in the drive,” Darcy said, looking around nervously.

They started walking again. “That might have gotten them to the area, to Luxembourg, but how did they find us at the coffee shop?”

Darcy shrugged helplessly.

“They must’ve traced the call,” the Captain said after a moment.

“But we used burner phones,” Darcy pointed out.

“They must’ve traced it from the other side. They must’ve anticipated that I would call Tony. That’s why I was stuck in the switchboard. It was one of SHIELD’s tricks.”

“That makes sense,” Darcy agreed. “That’s what I’d do, that’s what SHIELD does. Try to isolate you from your friends, your allies.”

“Shit,” the Captain swore. “Which means that we have to assume that all our acquaintances, even the remote ones, are under surveillance.”

Darcy nodded. “So we’re on our own.”

“So we’re on our own.”

~*~

Darcy calls him a day later. “I got a delivery from Tony Stark,” she starts. “The accompanying card just says ‘Welcome to the Family’.”

“Oh god.” Steve starts massaging his temples. Darcy sounds more amused out than annoyed and Steve decides that that’s a good sign. Maybe Tony didn’t go fully overboard. Still, he should apologise for his friends. Natasha already low-key hassled Darcy two days back but then told Steve afterwards that she approved. Nat had a weird way to show her affection and Steve really didn’t want Darcy to suffer from this.

“Yeah, that didn’t really explain what he did. Wedding onslaught or something. He went all out. _All out_ ,” she repeats for emphasis. “A dozen or more packages are now stacked in my miniscule apartment. It includes the clichéd wedding gifts. _All_ the clichéd wedding gifts, Steve. Mr. and Mrs. pillows, mugs, frames, aprons, several his and hers items, monogrammed towels… the whole shebang. I didn’t even know that there are personalised Mr. and Mrs. flip flops for the honeymoon. How did he even find out my shoe size?” Darcy sounds increasingly incredulous.

“I’m sorry,” Steve rushes to apologise. “Tony likes to mess with me. And now, apparently, in extension with you. I’m pretty sure he instructed Jarvis to just buy everything-”

“Is Jarvis his butler or something? Who Tony Stark headhunted from the Queen of England? Because he bought everything no real person needs. We could equip our non-existent mansion with this stuff. A table set for 24 people – who invites 24 people for dinner? For a five-course meal, apparently. I don’t even want to know how much this cost. There are these Japanese knives that I’m sure cost more than I pay in rent in a year and can probably also kill a man because they’ve been forged by Samurai during full moon or something.”

“I’m sorry,” Steve repeats. “He called me to complain that I’d left him in the dark. Thor told him about our marriage and Tony called to… clarify. I set the record straight though, I told him the truth. He knows that our marriage is… unusual.”

“That apparently didn’t keep him from gifting me a brand-new phone that has ‘Mrs. Rogers’ engraved on the back,” Darcy says. “It’s a Stark prototype I’d guess. The incorrect inscription aside, it’s pretty snazzy. It only has one entry, ‘the hubby’, which is your number. I’m calling you from it.”

“That’s at least something.”

“Yeah.”

Darcy is silent for a moment. “So you’re not mad?” Steve probes.

“Do I sound mad? I’m more weirded out. By the onslaught. But not by Tony Stark as a person. I can deal with him. I mean, I met Thor first. All the other Avengers are pretty underwhelming after that. Except the Black Widow, as you know, she frightened me to death the other day.”

“Okay,” Steve simply says.

“Is it too weird to ask Tony Stark if he kept the receipts so he can return all that stuff? Or is that too ungrateful?”

“I have no idea.”

“Maybe I should try my luck with eBay,” Darcy muses. “Rogers is a common enough name.”

“Do that. You can keep all the proceeds.”

“That’s very generous.”

“That’s all you’re getting out of this marriage,” Steve jokes.

Darcy chuckles quietly. “Good to know. Anyway, I’ll let you know what I decide. So that you know when you have to fake enthusiasm in front of Tony Stark when he asks about the 28-piece food processor that I never intend to use.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, there's a reference to BBC's "Sherlock" in here (back from the days before the show jumped the shark)


	6. Chapter 6

### Chapter 6

“Do you not like your bed?” Darcy is waiting at his apartment building early in the morning and Steve remembers that they made plans to go to the National Portrait Museum today. It was mostly Darcy’s idea. Just because they are soon to be divorced, it doesn’t mean that they can’t be friends, she’d decreed. Also, if they were doing their own little investigation, they should probably create a legitimate reason to hang outside of SHIELD.

Steve grins at her. “My wife refuses to share the bed. It’s cold and empty without her so I have to find solace in running.”

Darcy stares at him in surprise for a moment. “You’re sassy today,” she observes.

“It’s the running. I’m sorry.”

“No… no… don’t be! It’s just… unexpected. We’re married and you can still surprise me. Isn’t that the essence of a good relationship?”

Steve shrugs. “I wouldn’t know.”

He opens the door to his building and lets Darcy in. “Third floor,” he says, pointing at the stairs. “But if you ever want to join, I go running along the National Mall every morning before sunrise.”

“Every morning before sunrise? Yeah, not going to happen.”

“Not much of a runner?” Steve asks while they make their way upstairs.

“Dude, have you ever seen SHIELD basic training? Even if you don’t start out as a runner, you’ll become one. Physical training is rough; I’ve never been in better shape in my life. But I’m enjoying my few days of respite due to my injury. I’ll have to report back to the gym soon enough.” Darcy grimaces.

“Not your favourite thing?” he asks.

“It’s alright. I can deal with the running by now. I’m fairly decent at hand-to-hand and like I said: I was in good shape.”

He assesses her critically. “Maybe SHIELD training is too conventional for you because of your build.”

She stops to stare at him. “My build?” Darcy repeats. “Should SHIELD somehow train agents with a bra size above 36D differently?”

He frowns at her. “No, I… I wouldn’t know. What I meant is that you’re tiny. Did they ever train you in how to overpower people who are significantly taller than you?”

“No, that’s not part of basic training.”

“It should be,” Steve says firmly, “you should train with somebody who knows how-”

“If you suggest the Black Widow, I’m going to maim you. I think she’s playing a weird psychological game with me. You said she asked you to accompany me on my first mission as a favour because she made it appear as if she knew and liked me. But then she comes along afterwards and threatens me if I hurt you. It’s kind of freaking me out. Maybe she’s like a cat, who likes to play with her food or something.”

Steve grins. “I hate to break it to you, but that’s how she is. But she likes you. And I wasn’t suggesting her, even though she might be of help. I was talking about me. I used to be your height. Army basic training was rough for me as well.”

“And who taught you?” Darcy asks, eyebrows raised in challenge.

“Peggy Carter.”

Darcy snaps her mouth shut, blushes, and looks away and Steve realises how awkward it is, mentioning the woman he knows so well and who he might have married to the woman he doesn’t know at all and is married to. They make the last couple of steps to his apartment in uncomfortable silence and Steve lets them both in. Darcy instantly looks around, curious.

“I’m gonna take a shower and you can do your snooping,” Steve tells her.

“How did you know that I was gonna do that?”

“You work for SHIELD. Nosiness is part of the job description, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Darcy says with a grin. “Aren’t you afraid that I’m going to abscond with half of what you own?”

Steve shrugs. “What’s mine’s yours, right?”

“There’s a very apparent lack of red, white and blue in this apartment,” Darcy declares once Steve returns showered and dressed. She sounds a little disappointed.

Steve snorts. “Did you honestly think that I’d decorate my apartment that way?”

“You never know… Didn’t you design that first flag uniform thingy yourself? I thought you might have a thing for… patriotic colour schemes.”

“You know how people always tell you about work-life balance? I try to not bring my job home with me,” Steve shoots back.

“Yeah, you can tell that this is more ‘hipster artist Steven Rogers’,” Darcy says. “I mean, your artistic talent maybe gets one shout-out in history and is quickly forgotten among all the heroic deeds, but you’re really good.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re definitely the artistic one in this marriage.” Darcy surveys the apartment once more. “I mean, even your glasses are artfully arranged. You don’t even need the table set for 24 people Jarvis bought. Are you planning to host a dinner party on the regular?”

“Natasha bought them. She took me to IKEA.”

A slow grin spreads across Darcy’s face. “You know that going to an IKEA is the best test for a relationship, right? How did that work out for you and the Black Widow?”

Steve shrugged. “Nothing spectacular really. I just tagged along and did what Nat told me to do.”

“There’s an analogy to marriage in general in there, I feel. But yeah, your apartment is way nicer than mine. Is this a SHIELD apartment?”

“No, I own this place fair and square. I bought it when I moved here, the light in here is great. And I don’t have to worry about money, really. I received military back pay for my time on ice,” he explains.

“No annulment. I want a divorce. I'm suing for half of everything,” Darcy immediately jokes.

“That was one of the first things SHIELD taught me,” Steve continues wistfully. “That I’ll never have to worry about money again. Took me a while to get used to since I used to be dirt poor, but… you know…” he shrugs, “I try to make sensible investments and I give a lot to charity.”

“Okay, our annulment is _definitely_ off the table. I’m getting the best divorce lawyer in town to sue your ass for half of everything you own. I have student loans to pay! And I should probably sue for alimony, too, because my career at SHIELD came to an abrupt halt when I married one of their top operatives.”

Steve snorts and he’s glad that Darcy took his mind off thinking about his past and the money, the promotion he didn’t really earn and didn’t really deserve. And all the stuff that money couldn’t buy.

“Seriously, I know all about that stuff. My parents got divorced when I was a teenager.”

Steve stares at her, once again realising how little he knows about her. He doesn’t know anything about her family. If she has siblings, parents… “Are there in-laws I’m supposed to meet?” he then asks. “I mean, because that’ll be weird, super weird. I think you shouldn’t tell them. Not that I can dictate anything and not that I think you should lie to your family and not that I wouldn’t like to meet them under normal circumstances, I’m sure they’re nice and all, but, you know, we should figure things out first and-”

“Relax,” Darcy interrupts his rambling, “both my parents are dead.”

Steve lets out a sigh of relief and then immediately feels bad. “Oh… I’m sorry.”

Darcy shrugs casually but it feels a little forced. “It’s fine, it happened years ago. I’m an only child, too, and now I just make my own family. I’ve got Jane, who is like a sister. And then Thor has all but adopted me. You know, if I wanted, he’d probably find an Asgardian nobleman for me.”

“Let me know if we need to speed the divorce along,” Steve grins. “You know, to avoid the whole polygamy thing.”

“We don’t know much about Asgardian culture yet,” Darcy points out, “maybe polygamy is allowed… Or maybe they’re, like, religious fanatics who don’t marry divorced women or something.”

“I doubt that,” Steve said, “Asgard always sounds so advanced… And it would suck that you could only marry your Asgardian nobleman if I die.”

“But I would make an awesome young widow,” Darcy replies cheekily.

Steve shakes his head in mock disbelief. “That’s harsh.”

“Hey, in total gold digger fashion, I already married a guy who could be my grandfather. And I just realised: If you die, then I’d get all your money instead of only half of it like during a divorce and I’d receive SHIELD’s generous spousal package.”

“You’d also receive a widow’s pension from the army,” Steve points out helpfully.

“You’re still a soldier? I thought you retired to join SHIELD.”

“Nope, still in the army. I’m a contractor on permanent loan to SHIELD.”

“You shouldn’t have said that.” Darcy grins widely. “You’re making it very difficult for me to let you live. You’re lucky that I don’t have a single treacherous bone in my body.”

Steve snorts again. “Do you want to know another piece of trivia?”

“Sure.”

“I also received automatic promotions for my time on ice.”

“Are you saying that Captain America is no longer a Captain?” Darcy asks incredulously.

“Exactly.”

She stares at him for a moment. “That’s like… the Pope no longer being catholic or something. Unbelievable.” She pauses for a moment. “Why does everybody still call you ‘Captain’ at SHIELD though?”

“It’s my code name. Just like Natasha is ‘Black Widow’ and Clint is ‘Hawkeye’.”

“Ugh, code names. I need to get one of those. They’re badass.”

“You can go by ‘Mrs. Rogers’,” Steve says cheekily.

“Not badass enough,” Darcy replies, deadpan. “Okay, now that I’ve assessed your apartment and deemed it swanky enough, let’s get to the next topic of conversation. Any dirt on the neighbours?”

“Not really.” Steve shrugs. “The nurse next door moved in around the same time I did. She’s the only person I really meet. Other than that… there’s a couple with a baby downstairs. That’s all I know.”

“SHIELD didn’t give you an entire dossier on your neighbours to make sure they’re all clean and no threat to Captain America?”

“Not that I’m aware of. And I live in relative anonymity anyway. I’m not sure that they know who I am.”

“Do you get spotted a lot?”

Steve shakes his head. “No, not really. The only time I take precautions is when I go to the Smithsonian. It’s kind of difficult going undercover if you’re surrounded by pictures of yourself.”

“You go there?” Darcy looks surprised. “Why? Isn’t that… weird?”

Steve considers his answer for a moment; asks himself if he should tell Darcy the truth that he goes there quite a lot just to remember. The Smithsonian is the one place where he can see things that remind him of home, of his friends, back when his life was normal. Steve doesn’t have a lot of memorabilia from his first 27 years on earth and even fewer pictures. Everything, even the blandest items, had become an item of historical significance during his time on ice, so there was no easy access to it after he’d woken up. He has to go to the Smithsonian to see certain things.

He doesn’t want to tell Darcy though, because said out loud it will probably sound even more depressing. So he shrugs casually. “Just, you know, to remember.”

Darcy looks at him knowingly for a moment and Steve thinks that she might see right through him. “We should go there again sometime,” she suggests instead. “While you still have the short hair and the beard. It’ll be fun to see if you’re still basically unrecognisable then, too.”

“Sounds like fun. But speaking of museums: Do you want to head out?”

Darcy nods and follows him outside. They meet his neighbour Kate in the hallway. She is in scrubs, which means that she’s probably just returning from her shift at the hospital.

“Hey,” Steve greets her.

She stares at them for a moment. “Hey,” she responds, immediately followed by, “you changed your hair.”

“Oh… right… yes I- I did,” Steve stutters and has to resist the urge to touch the stubble on his head. Instead he scratches his beard nervously.

“Makes you almost unrecognisable,” Kate adds quietly.

She looks at Darcy for a moment and Steve can’t quite decipher her gaze. If he didn’t know any better, he would call it apprehensive, but that doesn’t make any sense. “That’s my friend Darcy,” he says awkwardly.

Kate gives her a little wave. “Hi, I’m Kate.”

Darcy squints at her for a moment. “Sorry,” she says. “I didn’t quite catch your name.”

“It’s Kate.”

Darcy hums quietly. “Nice meeting you, Kate.”

~*~

Their situation was dire, there was no sugar-coating it. Steve told Darcy as much when they finally made it back to the apartment and sat down at the kitchen table.

Darcy sighed, defeated, and then looked at him expectantly, like she was just waiting for him to give up on her, on them, any second now. But Steve wasn’t going to do that. He had promised that he would get Darcy home and to safety. He just couldn’t see yet how he was going to do that.

“SHIELD got to Luxembourg so quickly,” Darcy said quietly. “There must already be a large manhunt underway.”

“There probably is,” Steve agreed.

“So… we keep moving?” Darcy asked.

He shook his head. “No, the streets will be swarming with agents. They’ll cover the stations, the airport... We have no reason to suspect they know about our exact whereabouts. We can stay here, at least for the night. Sleep on it.”

“And hope that the situation will be less dire in the morning?”

“It’s probably not going to be,” Steve said in brutal honesty. “But everything has been moving so quickly in the last 24 hours. We should rest and… make plans.”

Because that’s what Steve did. He was a strategist who worked towards a goal. He just needed time to figure out how to achieve it. If he’d been alone, he would be less cautious. But he now had a rookie agent in his care.

“What we could do,” Darcy suggested after a moment, “is to use those fake passports and the money and book us flights out of here, back to the States.”

“And then what?” Steve replied with more force than intended. He noticed that Darcy flinched a little. “SHIELD will be waiting for us,” he explained, his voice going softer, “they’ll find us as soon as we set foot on US soil and bury this so deep, nobody will ever find it. And you’ll be carried off to a supermax facility without any chance of a trial or justice in general.”

“Do you honestly think this conspiracy goes so deep?”

“You saw all those SHIELD names in the files. A lot of people are embroiled. I’m not saying everybody is bad, but the people we’re dealing with are well-connected. And even if people aren’t directly involved, SHIELD Germany is probably already busy covering their tracks, turning you and me into bad guys and telling HQ some fairy tale. Think about the numbers we saw; there’s a lot of money involved. I think they – whoever they are – will do a lot to secure their investment.”

They were silent for a moment. “Kiesewetter,” Darcy finally realised, “they killed him to tie up open ends.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“But why did they send me to steal from him first? Why didn’t they just send somebody to kill him and scorch the servers?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You can probably still return to the fold,” Darcy then said quietly. “You’re Captain America; they will always welcome you back.”

Steve stared at her in disbelief. “I’m not going to abandon you!” he promised her. “You’re my responsibility and I’m going to get you home safe and sound. And I’m not gonna return before I know what’s going on.”

Darcy looked at him gratefully. “Thanks. I mean… I just wanted to check if you were okay with all this. It’s basically my fault we’re in this pickle-”

“It’s not your fault,” Steve disagreed immediately.

“And thanks for not doubting me,” Darcy finished.

“First, it’s a case of ‘wrong place, wrong time’,” Steve said patiently, “not your fault. And second, I really don’t take you for the cold-blooded killer.”

“Thanks,” Darcy said again.

“Don’t thank me yet. We still have to figure out how to continue from here. You should try to get some sleep. Maybe things really will look better in the morning.”

“Are you going to keep watch?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Steve didn’t sleep much that night. He tried to figure out how to move forward now and what to do with the junior agent under his protection. Maybe he had overstated the danger of returning to the States? They were US citizens after all and they had rights. And they would hardly return empty-handed: they had the data from Kiesewetter’s server that would point a capable investigator supported by SHIELD’s infrastructure to the real perpetrators in no time and exonerate Darcy Lewis.

But still, Steve was weary of SHIELD. They’d seen that a lot more SHIELD personnel than originally suspected were embroiled somehow. The conspiracy went deeper than expected and whoever was involved had connections. Sure, his encounter with the SHIELD agent might not look so threatening from a neutral standpoint, except that the agent might have grossly overreacted and blindly believed whatever the three dirty German agents had told him, but taken into context Steve wasn’t really ready to run back into SHIELD’s waiting arms. He had become too frustrated in the 18 months he had worked for that not-so-secret-anymore organization and their behaviour now reflected a weird pattern somehow.

That left them with option number two: Trying to figure out the whole convoluted plot, SHIELD’s role in it, clear their names, and return to the States with the real culprits in custody and justice served. They had a good starting point with the data they had in their hands and they just had to figure out the overall plan and what exactly Kiesewetter had been doing on behalf of his clients. But that wasn’t Steve decision alone to make, he had to take Darcy Lewis’ preference into account. She was, after all, the wanted criminal and she would suffer more from their little solo run than him. She had been right in saying that Steve still had his reputation as Captain America that protected him and would make it easier for him to ‘return to the fold’. So far, he wasn’t the one with the target on his back.

When Steve went into the kitchen the next morning Darcy was already awake and sitting on the kitchen table. By the looks of it, she hadn’t slept much either.

“Hey,” Steve said quietly, moving around the kitchen to look for something to eat.

“Hey,” Darcy responded. “So, do things look better in the morning?”

“Not really,” Steve answered honestly.

“Yeah, I know.” Darcy waited a moment. “I’ve thought this through,” she then continued all business-like, “and there’re really only two options: Either were return home, try our luck with the data we’ve gathered, hope that we’ll put it in the right hands, that SHIELD doesn’t screw us over, and that it will eventually exonerate me, especially with Captain America vouching for me.”

Steve nodded.

“Or we investigate ourselves and clear my name. What do you think?” Darcy asked.

“I think it’s your decision,” he told her honestly. “It’s your ass we’re trying to save. Like you said: I’ll probably be welcomed back to the fold any time, but you’re the international fugitive that’s accused of murder and whatnot. It might take a while to clear your name – no matter what we do. So I’m willing to take your lead on this.”

“Hm.” She thought for a moment. “Do you really think SHIELD is involved and we can’t trust them? It’s SHIELD, they… we’re the good guys.”

Steve took a deep breath. “To be honest, that’s also what I’m struggling with… Maybe I’m overstating things? Maybe I’m being overly dramatic?”

“I’d call it overly cautious. I mean, even if it’s just a rogue group within SHIELD that’s doing it, we’ve seen that they, whoever they are, have friends in high places. They have influence,” Darcy said pensively, voicing the exact thoughts Steve had had during the night. “And we don’t know who we can trust.”

“And the people we’re certain we can trust, are unavailable,” Steve stated quietly.

They were silent for a moment.

“Let’s find out how Kiesewetter fits into all of this,” Darcy finally said. “Some more investigation won’t hurt. And if we get caught, at least we have something to show for. We’re only doing this to clear my name. I’m not giving myself up that easily,” she added with a defiant nod.

“Good.”

Again they were silent.

“So what do we do next?” Darcy then asked. “I’ve never been on the run before.”

“Neither have I,” Steve said. “But I don’t think there’s much we can do from Luxembourg.”

“But Luxembourg is safe,” Darcy pointed out.

“But we’re also stuck here; at some point we will be found. We should keep moving.”

“To London?” Darcy suggested after a moment. “Kiesewetter had contacts there, traded there, maybe we can investigate further what he was up to for whoever he was working for.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They made their plan at the kitchen table. They would stay in Luxembourg for another night, allowing them to plan ahead and then leave in the morning. Thanks to the abolishment of border controls in most of mainland Europe they would be able to travel without being traced but they needed fake identities to enter into the UK, for which they used the passports Natasha had available. She thankfully had all the equipment ready to make blank passports into untraceable forgeries.

Darcy looked at the forgeries for a moment. All they had to do was change the picture and the year of birth. “Do you think I should change my appearance?” she asked. “I mean, I’m on the Interpol red notice… my face is probably plastered on screens all over Europe. Maybe even the world.”

“Good point,” Steve conceded.

“And the Black Widow has all the stuff here anyway. I should probably cut and dye my hair – that’s what a lifetime of watching spy movies has prepared me for.”

Steve looked at her questioningly but she didn’t elaborate. “Do you think I should change my appearance too?” he mused. He’d never really considered it, but he’d figured that an inconspicuous outfit, a hat or sunglasses, would do.

“Well, there’s no mistaking that incomparable jawline of justice,” Darcy said. “Maybe you should stop shaving. That’s the easiest way. We can go from there.”

Darcy asked Steve to cut her hair before she would dye it platinum blonde because she couldn’t do it herself. “But not too short,” she reiterated when she handed Steve the scissors and he realised that she was nervous. He asked himself just how much of a brave front she was putting on; she was an inexperienced junior agent after all. “I still need to be able to put it up in a ponytail. Imagine I have to do hand-to-hand combat and my hair gets all into my face.”

“Okay,” Steve assured her.

“So glad we don’t have to do this in a dinky public bathroom like Sydney Bristow or Jason Bourne and Marie,” Darcy rambled on. “I mean, this is still some serious Alias shit that’s going on right now.”

Steve stared at her questioningly through the mirror. “Do I even want to know?”

“I’ll introduce you to the badass that is Sydney Bristow some other time. So badass,” she muttered to herself.

Afterwards they scouted the apartment even further for all the stuff that might be helpful. Steve noticed that Darcy was touching her new hair cut constantly, self-consciously, until he told her not to.

They poured over their plan again in the evening before going to bed. Hopefully they’d make it into London without problems the next day.

~*~

The moment Steve is cleared for active duty he’s put on heavy rotation. SHIELD sends him on three back-to-back missions, which is unusual because in the past they made sure to give everybody – super powered or not – a day or two off between assignments. And while Steve is happy to have the distraction, he also hopes that it won’t continue that way indefinitely.

He doesn’t see Darcy for almost a week, but they meet up at the earliest occasion once Steve has some free time on his hands. Darcy agrees to stop by his apartment.

Darcy arrives early in the morning with her laptop and a stack of papers, which she drops onto his dining table without much fanfare.

Steve stares at her for a moment. “What’s that?” he asks.

“Research,” Darcy answers, sounding a little irritated. “I had a lot of time on my hands.”

“Great,” Steve tries to sound upbeat. “Have you found anything? What have you been up to?”

Darcy shrugs and looks unnerved for a moment. “Looking at random news items during our disappearance, stuff we might have been involved in.”

Steve frowns at her. That’s not what he expected and it doesn’t really sound like a viable strategy.

“Did you know,” Darcy rambles on, “there were car bombs in Kabul and Baghdad and 11 people were killed after a grenade was thrown into a movie theatre Peshawar in Northern Pakistan? There was a measles outbreak in the Philippines. Comcast bought Time Warner for 44 billion. The French president was here for a diplomatic visit and a state dinner.”

“Darcy-” Steve tries to interrupt her.

“The protests in Thailand are ongoing. There were so many skirmishes between the police and the protestors. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are a thousand things, a thousand things,” she finally finishes and looks up at him.

Steve frowns at her and for a moment he’s not sure what to say. It’s clear that Darcy spent way too much time thinking about everything in the past few days. But then, she didn’t have the distraction of work like Steve did. If he’d been cooped up like her, he might’ve gone stir crazy as well.

“Wow, the not knowing is really getting to you, isn’t it?” Steve begins carefully.

“Sure, don’t you feel the same?” Darcy says accusatorily and Steve holds up both hands in defence. “I mean, it’s clear that we just didn’t lie on the beach for two weeks…” she trails off.

“You have a bullet and a stab wound,” Steve agrees.

“Yes, there was something we did, some kind of mission. And I want to know.”

“Checking random facts is not going to help, though,” Steve points out.

“Yeah, but what else am I supposed to be doing?” Again she sounds accusatory. “Because I have no other info. And SHIELD is no help at all. They’re stonewalling me!” She throws her hands up in frustration and then falls down onto the next available chair, looking defeated.

Steve looks at her, not sure what to say. He sits down next to her and takes a look at all the papers Darcy gathered.

“What about the trader?” he asks after a moment.

Darcy looks up at him and sighs. “Dead end. _Literally_. And SHIELD is still blocking access to the case file.”

“And our movements?”

“There were none. There was one flight in both our names from Frankfurt to Chengdu, but I followed up on that and we definitely weren’t on it. Other than that there’s nothing that ties us to any action during the two weeks. Nothing to indicate that we did anything. Except getting married.”

Steve thinks for a moment. “So you have no record of how we got to Malta?”

“No. Probably via land though. To take advantage of the EU’s freedom of movement. No passport controls when you pass the border by car. We could’ve travelled through all of mainland Europe.”

“We didn’t use our real names? Or our SHIELD issued cover identities?” Steve is sure that Darcy probably checked everything already, but he just wants to get some structure into the research.

“None.”

“How about our way from the island?”

“Nothing came up either.”

“How did we go from Frankfurt to Malta to Brazil?” Steve looks at Darcy.

“Don’t look at me. I don’t know. And it’s been driving me nuts. Also, speaking of Brazil: Why were we checked into the ER as husband and wife? Who knew? How could they know? It’s not like we had it tattooed on our foreheads. Somebody must’ve told them.”

“Yeah.” Steve leans back in his chair for a moment. “Maybe we need to think outside the box.”

“Go ahead,” Darcy says neutrally. “I’ve thought about this again and again.”

“Maybe we’re looking at the wrong movements. Maybe we weren’t even on Malta,” Steve suggests.

Darcy stares at him in surprise. “We haven’t received the original marriage license yet, but we got _married_ on Malta.”

“Okay, but what if an original never arrives because it doesn’t exist and the copy we provided is a fake?”

Now it’s Darcy’s turn to frown at him.

“You’re a talented hacker, right?” Steve continues. “How difficult is it to make somebody appear married on paper and for the official records without ever having exchanged vows for real?”

Darcy hums thoughtfully. “That’s mostly the stuff for terrible Hollywood movies, though. You know, where Uma Thurman ends up with Jeffrey Dean Morgan instead of Colin Firth. Not that there’s anything wrong with Jeffrey Dean Morgan but Colin Firth is Mr. Darcy, Steve. Mr. Darcy.”

Steve looks at her in amusement, glad that she’s perked up somewhat. “Okay,” he then simply says. “But could you do it? The hacking I mean.”

“Yeah, probably,” Darcy answers thoughtfully. “But why would we then fake a license to hand over to SHIELD? And why Malta? I could’ve probably as easily hacked into Nevada’s records and got us a shotgun wedding in Vegas if you and I had to appear married. I feel that the location is kind of important. And if we weren’t on Malta, where did we go? It’s the one lead we have about our whereabouts between vanishing in Frankfurt and reappearing in Rio.”

“True,” Steve says. “I’m sure that you extensively researched Malta already. Anything that came up?”

Darcy shakes her head. “I looked at everything. _Everything_ ,” she repeats for emphasis. “SHIELD reports, other agency reports, international news, their local news, newspapers. There was nothing in Malta that would indicate our involvement.”

“Okay, I’m pretty sure you checked this already, but have you tried the money trail?”

“No activity on our credit cards or bank accounts,” Darcy immediately recounts. “No activity on our SHIELD issued ones. The cash SHIELD gave us is gone.”

“Huh,” Steve realises, “SHIELD didn’t give us enough cash for a two-week vacation, not for staying in Germany and definitely not for travelling to Brazil and an expensive engagement ring. How did we afford all this?”

“Good point,” Darcy muses. “I didn’t even think of that.”

“So apart from getting married, we must’ve gotten money somehow. The way I see it, it probably wasn’t anything legal.”

“It probably wasn’t,” Darcy agrees.

“So if we can find out where we got the money, we can follow the money trail. Have you looked for bank robberies?”

Darcy stares at him in disbelief. “Do you honestly think we robbed a bank? Would you rob a bank, Captain America?”

“I probably wouldn’t. But I also didn’t think that I’d get married on a whim to a woman I barely knew,” Steve points out.

“Point taken. But I wouldn’t rob a bank and I’m pretty sure I would’ve advised you against it. It’s dangerous, not clean enough, and there’s not really much money to make.”

Steve’s eyebrows rise in surprise. “You’ve clearly thought this through,” he then challenges her. “How would Darcy Lewis try to access a reasonable amount of money?”

“I can think of a few options,” Darcy says conversationally. “Like you said: I’m a hacker. I can think of a couple of ways to get to a large amount of money without breaking any sweat. I’ll do some research.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Uma Thurman movie is called “The Accidental Husband”. I’ve never seen it but the reviews are pretty ghastly, I think? And obviously, I couldn’t write another story without a Jane-Austen-reference ;-)
> 
> Steve and Nat going to IKEA is from [this tumblr entry](http://actualmenacebuckybarnes.tumblr.com/post/86272535657/steve-natasha-go-to-ikea).


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I have no explanation except... life happened.
> 
> Also, shout out to infinitestargazer who jumped in and beta read this chapter! She’s amazing, so give her a big round of applause.

### Chapter 7

“Good run, Captain?” Darcy calls out conversationally when Steve passes her bench for the second time without noticing her.

Darcy stifles a snort at his abrupt stop, watching him shift into high alert. Steve promptly relaxes his stance as he recognises her, and makes his way to her bench.

“What’s up?” Steve asks. He isn’t even out of breath after multiple laps at 30 miles per hour. She stares at him for a second remembering the gushing she heard about him when she’d first started working for SHIELD. The agents who’d had the luck to see him in his training clothes had been right. Those tight shirts look ridiculous on his ridiculous body.

“I brought you breakfast,” Darcy announces and hands him the paper bag with the bagels she bought before coming here.

He looks at her questioningly, like he can tell that this is not why she came here on an early Tuesday morning, but just starts eating.

“The Mall is really beautiful this time of the morning,” Darcy muses loudly. “I can understand why you come here.”

“It’s peaceful,” Steve says between bites.

“You come here all by yourself?”

“Yup.”

“Nice.”

Steve squints at her for a moment. “You’re acting weird. Are you alright? Did you find something?” he asks, trying – and failing – to not sound too hopeful. They agreed that Darcy would do some further digging as there isn’t really much Steve can contribute to that part of the investigation.

“Did you find a money trail?” Steve prompts, when Darcy doesn’t immediately answer.

“No,” Darcy shakes her head, “I checked everything, every little bank robbery worldwide. Every irregularity that’s been reported. There was nothing.”

Steve’s shoulders sag as he sighs with disappointment. “We might’ve stolen from the bad guys?” he then suggests, but he doesn’t sound convinced. “I mean they wouldn’t report anything?”

“But there would’ve been chatter and I checked that.”

He lets himself fall onto the bench and Darcy sits down next to him. “So, do you have any further ideas how to get the money?”

“I would’ve hit up SHIELD,” Darcy says casually.

“What?” he stares at her, flabbergasted.

“SHIELD’s dark money pool,” Darcy explains like it’s no big deal. “They have millions in accounts that they ‘confiscated’ from bad guys: drug money, money from blood diamonds, warlords’ funds, profits from insider trading schemes, you name it. I bet I could’ve hacked into the accounts and gotten us a small fortune in under ten minutes.”

“We couldn’t have done that,” Steve objects. “SHIELD would’ve told us. Stealing from them, no matter how they got that money, is probably treason. That’s a legitimate reason to imprison us for life. If we’d done that, they would never have let us go after they found us in Brazil.”

“Well, there’s a lot that SHIELD is not telling us,” Darcy mutters.

Steve stares at her, but Darcy refuses to look at him. “Why do I have the feeling that this is the actual reason you’re here?” he then prompts. “What happened?”

“SHIELD finally released our mission file. They claimed it was a clerical error. ‘In the aftermath of Captain America’s disappearance all his files were declared top secret and some of them took some time to be unlocked,’” Darcy recites irritably “Anyway, I read the report about our mission in Germany.”

Steve immediately sits up straight. “Anything special?”

“Yes. I didn’t write it.”

He stares at her in disbelief and Darcy reaches into her purse to pull out a printed copy of the report. Steve frowns at the report, but starts reading.

“I know how I write, Steve,” Darcy explains when he looks back up at her. “I’ve written mission reports before; this is not my style.”

“I have to take your word for it,” Steve says neutrally.

“I’ve known since yesterday,” Darcy continues, “and I’ve considered everything, tried all the excuses, you know? I might’ve had that personality transplant and gotten married to Captain America so maybe, just for shits and giggles, I posted a report that sounds like it was written by a robot. But Sitwell said that my mission was successful, that I wrote this report and that we disappeared after. So this,” she stabs her finger at the offending paper, “makes no sense.”

Steve mulls over this in silence for a long moment. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he agrees. “But why would SHIELD lie to us? This must’ve been SHIELD. If this was filed, somebody on the inside must’ve written this.”

“I don’t know,” Darcy says exasperatedly, “but I have this growing feeling that SHIELD is purposefully keeping us in the dark. I mean, they said they would investigate what happened to us, but it’s been three weeks and there have been no results.”

“Yeah, three weeks is an eternity in SHIELD time,” Steve states quietly.

“If they really put their people to work, they probably could’ve tracked our movements by running our pictures through worldwide facial recognition. We must have appeared on cameras at some point. But there’s nothing. _Nothing_.” All the frustration and suspicion that’s been building within Darcy over the past few days comes pouring out. “And then they stonewall my own attempts! First, they confiscate my engagement ring so I tried to get it back to look at the diamond because diamonds are registered and maybe we could find out where it was sold. But SHIELD is having none of that. And when I mentioned the idea to the case agent so that maybe SHIELD could follow up on that, I got the generic answer that they’re working every angle. This is so ridiculous! And now this! This fake report! After denying me, us, access for ages! The more I think about it, the more I realise that all evidence points to the Kiesewetter mission being the start of this whole convoluted plot. Something happened in Frankfurt, while on the mission, that led us on this wild goose chase.”

“So you’re suggesting that we actively distrust SHIELD?” Steve asks carefully.

“Do you have a good explanation for their behaviour?” Darcy retorts.

“I mean…” Steve visibly struggles with the answer, “SHIELD… they’re the good guys but they can be really… shady in some instances.”

“Shit,” Darcy swears. That wasn’t the answer she wanted. She tells Steve as much when he looks at her questioningly. “You’re the personification of _the man_. You’re the reason why SHIELD is called SHIELD. The founding principles of the organisation are based on what you guys did in the 1940s. And now you’re telling me that even _you_ think they’re shady. You were supposed to restore my faith, preferably with a rousing speech.”

Steve laughs humourlessly. “No such luck. We had to compromise back then already… And I’ve had a crash course in 21st century cynicism thanks to SHIELD. Sometimes I think-” he stops himself and grows quiet for a moment and Darcy wonders if she should press the issue. But Steve continues, “SHIELD’s modus operandi was once based on our 1940s principles, but times have changed and so has SHIELD.”

“That was a very diplomatic answer,” Darcy says quietly.

He shrugs. “My attitude towards my employer is developing and changing. I’m by no means somebody who just follows orders.”

“Good,” Darcy nods appreciatively. “I can work with that.”

They sit in silence on the bench for a couple of minutes.

“So what do we do now?” Steve finally asks.

“I don’t know,” Darcy answers honestly.

“I mean, we should probably continue investigating?” Steve suggests.

“But how do we do that when we no longer completely trust SHIELD? I can’t use their resources without arousing suspicion.”

“Yeah, they can probably track every single one of your keystrokes…” He thinks for a moment. “We could ask the other Avengers for help. Tony would especially love to ‘stick it to the man.’”

“But we still need a solid lead,” Darcy points out.

“You said Kiesewetter-” Steve begins.

“Any investigation into him, by us, Tony Stark, or anyone else, will probably ring all the alarm bells at SHIELD.”

“We can wait for things to calm down,” Steve suggests “there’s no rush in finding out. We can play the long game, if you want to. But I remember that last week not knowing was driving you crazy.”

“It’s still driving me crazy,” Darcy confesses, “but now I feel that there’s an even bigger issue here and answers won’t come quickly. I can lie low for a couple of weeks.”

“Okay,” Steve says, getting up.

“One suggestion though,” Darcy adds, “in the meantime, we should mess with SHIELD as much as possible.”

~*~

“Can I ask you a question, Cap? Steve?” Darcy asked after they’d crossed the border into France.

“Sure.”

“Do you find this-” Darcy stopped to make a sweeping, all-encompassing gesture, “weird?”

“No, I’m protecting you because it’s the right thing to do,” Steve said without hesitation.

“Oh,” she coloured a little and shook her head, “that’s not what I meant. I meant the fact that you can drive through a unified Europe now. There are no borders; there’s peace; there have been no armed conflicts for ages. And our route takes us close to the remnants of the Maginot Line. Is that weird for you?”

He stared at her for a moment, honestly surprised by her question. These days nobody asked him about his past or his thoughts on the 21st century. Instead, they avoided the issue outright or danced around it, which was really a shame. Steve had read up on history and had a firm grasp of US and international policies, but nobody was ever willing to ask him about it. That might have to do with the fact that they didn’t want to put a foot in their mouth by saying something that might set him off, but Steve had adjusted well, he didn’t need to be coddled. He’d very much prefer for people to be honest instead of tiptoeing around him.

Darcy’s question was refreshing and, in a way, welcome.

“Yes, it’s a little weird,” he answered honestly.

He’d never thought of it, really. Yes, Europe was at peace, mostly, which was a weird feeling, now that he considered it. Europe had pretty much always been at war during his first lifetime. On the other hand, it didn’t matter much to him any longer. Europe might be at peace, but, as SHIELD had put it when they’d first approached him about re-joining them, there were plenty of places in the world where his intervention was still needed. Besides, these days you couldn’t find your enemy on a map; the division into Axis and Allied Powers was long gone. Instead there was this new threat of international terrorism that made things muddier, more complicated. SHIELD, in their role as international custodian, made him mop up messes worldwide now.

“You mentioned during the debrief that it’s nice to go back to Germany when there’s no war to be fought. Is it really?” Darcy followed up with another question.

“Of course it is,” Steve said forcefully, frowning at her. “I’m glad the war is over.”

“Sorry,” Darcy cleared her throat awkwardly, “I didn’t mean it that way, just… You were literally built to fight the Nazis and now they’re no longer a threat. I was just wondering how you adjust after that…” she trailed off.

Steve looked at Darcy in surprise, she’d definitely hit a sore spot. That was one of the things he was currently struggling with. In his new role at SHIELD, he was the tool they’d probably originally wanted out of Project Rebirth. These days SHIELD told Steve that it was not his responsibility to think about political implications. This was done by faceless analysts in offices far removed from the field. Steve was told to execute orders, to perform, and make strategic military decisions in the field. It stung. There were times when he was no longer able to see what overall ideological goal was.

And he never was one to follow orders.

Now this mission, helping Darcy, who was clearly being framed for something, was the first time in a while that something felt right.

“I’m glad the war is over,” Steve said quietly into the oppressive silence in the car, “and I’m glad that the Germans and the Japanese and the Italians are now our allies and our friends. But yes, the 21st century is a little… weird.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry… that was just the very curious political scientist in me talking.”

“It’s alright. People never talk to me about my past,” Steve said. “It’s like I’m a ticking time bomb or something. As though I’ll have a breakdown the moment somebody mentions the 40s. It’s fine.”

“Really?” Darcy looked at him like she wasn’t entirely convinced.

“Really.”

Steve half expected her to continue with more questions, but to his surprise she didn’t. Instead she looked out of the window at the countryside passing by.

“That article, though,” Darcy said a few minutes later, “‘The Hero Who Sacrificed Everything’. Total propaganda piece.”

“Oh, you read it?”

“Everybody and their grandmother read it. Have you ever been asked to sign the cover?”

“No, never. Should I have?”

“Huh,” Darcy hummed, surprised. “So you live in relative anonymity?”

“I’m not a celebrity by any standard, no. Otherwise, I couldn’t do this kind of work. But occasionally people recognise me on the street.”

“Were there ever any discussions about keeping your return a secret?”

Steve thought for a moment. “I don’t think there was. I mean, the coverage from the Battle of New York was everywhere.”

“SHIELD could’ve found a way,” Darcy pointed out, “they could’ve kept the knowledge of your sudden re-appearance a secret. I mean, there were tons of conspiracy theories about your disappearance in the 40s to begin with. And you wear that mask-cowl thing.”

“True… but people would’ve always asked who’s the man behind the mask. And keeping it secret for the sake of national security and all… would’ve probably led to a lot of additional rumours. And the mask isn’t everything.”

“Right, there’s the patriotic frisbee...” Darcy grinned.

“Yeah, it’s one of a kind and would’ve led to even more questions. How did we get it? Is it just a replica? How was the guy wielding it chosen? I’m really glad that SHIELD chose the honest approach.”

Darcy hummed in understanding. “So, how many famous people have you met?”

“Not that many, actually.”

“Don’t tell me that you aren’t invited to Tony Stark’s legendary parties.”

“There aren’t that many parties these days, as far as I’m aware. He’s settled… quieted down from what I was told. Not that I can compare; I wasn’t awake for the 1990s and the 2000s.” Steve grinned.

“Hmm. Good point.”

“So, what about you?” Steve then asked.

“You’ve read my file,” Darcy answered. “There isn’t really much to tell.”

“It was just a bare bones thing without much background,” Steve pointed out. “How did you join SHIELD?”

Darcy shrugged. “They recruited me. I was aimless, really, after working with Jane and all… So I thought: ‘Why not try this secret agent thing?’”

“What happened to Jane?”

“She got all the funding she’s ever dreamt of. She could afford a real assistant, one with actual science knowledge.”

“You bitter about that?”

“Oh, god, no.” Darcy shook her head forcefully. “Whatever happens, Jane and I, we’re sisters… What we experienced in New Mexico and London were a once in a lifetime events. We skype and text, visit and keep in contact and everything. And Thor is like my older brother, it’s great.”

“Any other family?”

“Only child, parents both deceased. Makes the whole ‘secret agent’ thing a lot easier.”

“Orphans make the best recruits,” Steve said pensively.

“Did you just quote James Bond at me?” Darcy squinted at him.

“What? No!”

“Okay, but you totally did. Seriously, you did, probably subconsciously. And it’s true, so… Just look at all the Avengers. The only one who still has a family is Thor and boy, his family puts the fun in dysfunctional.”

Steve laughed softly at that. “So how’s that secret agent thing working out for you?”

“Dude, you were there for the past 48 hours. My career as a secret agent is pretty much in shambles.”

“But did you like it?”

Darcy looked pensive for a moment. “In a way… yes. It’s very varied, the work, I mean. SHIELD originally headhunted me for my hacking skills, but I aced a lot of tests during the placement period so they put me into training as a field agent instead”

“Yeah, I saw those scores. You’re talented.”

“Thanks.”

“I didn’t know that SHIELD taught their junior agents to steal a car though.”

“SHIELD didn’t teach me,” Darcy said smugly.

“What? Where did you learn that?” Steve asked.

“My parents’ nasty-ass divorce was rough on me and I had a bit of a wild child phase. Stealing and joyriding cars was one way to… rebel.”

Steve looked at her in surprise. “How did SHIELD even employ you? I thought a criminal record would automatically disqualify you, make you ineligible to work for an intelligence agency.”

“See, I don’t have a criminal record,” Darcy grinned impishly. “You’re only in trouble if you get caught.”

Steve looked impressed for a moment. “What else can you do?” he asked, curious.

“Except hotwiring a car? Lock picking. Pickpocketing. I like to think that I’d be pretty good at B&E.”

“Useful skills for field agents to have.”

“Yeah, but SHIELD doesn’t train their junior agents in it. At the beginning it’s a lot of shooting and fighting and running. And making sure you can handle yourself – like my first mission was supposed to pan out. Just once you’re fully promoted to field agent you’ll get to all the good stuff. I think I’d make a good grifter,” Darcy said pensively. “They’ve only started the training and I’m a long way from going undercover for real but playing pretend, subterfuge comes naturally to me. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.”

“You’re probably going to ace any further valuations then.”

“If I still have a career with SHIELD,” Darcy pointed out.

“They’d be idiots to not take you back once we’ve cleared your name. I mean, just looking at your marksmanship scores… those are impressive.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m not really good with firearms,” Steve confessed.

“Well, you don’t need to, right? Usually you have that patriotic frisbee going for you,” Darcy said. “Is that a Mjölnir kind of thing? Only the worthy can wield it?”

“No, it’s not. Anybody can pick it up. I think Clint stole it once and tried it out, actually. But handling it is more difficult than it looks.”

“I’d think so, it’s basically physics and math, getting it to fly the way you want it to fly.”

Steve nodded. “I had a lot of trouble getting used to it in the beginning. There were a lot of accidents… Thankfully, I heal fast. But the Commandos had a lot of fun at my expense. A lot.”

“And they never let you live it down?”

“Never.” Steve smiled affectionately. “After me, Bucky is probably the most proficient with the shield.” Steve’s smile faltered. He hadn’t thought about Bucky in the past few days. Losing Bucky still felt like it had happened a week ago. Not two years ago. Not 70 years ago. “I mean, he was.”

Darcy looked at him for a moment, but didn’t say anything for which Steve was grateful. They drove in silence for a while, later ditching the car in Dunkirk before catching the bus to Calais, followed by the ferry to Dover.

~*~

Darcy is on her second week at her desk job when an agent in the elevator looks at her way too long and shakes her head in disgust. Darcy tries to ignore it. She figures that not everything that’s floating around at SHIELD would paint her in a good light. The rumours that she’d gotten herself pregnant and thereby forced Steve into a marriage were probably only the tip of the iceberg.

She decides to ignore it, but when the agent passes Darcy on her way to her desk and clucks her tongue reproachfully, Darcy resolves to take the bait. It was just a matter of time before somebody confronted her about her marriage to Captain America.

“Anything you’d like to say, Agent?” Darcy asks neutrally.

“You’re still Lewis,” the woman accuses.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You’re still Lewis, you kept your last name.”

Darcy stares at her for a moment. She expected hassling and insults and people insinuating that she was sleeping with poor, innocent Captain America for her own gain. She didn’t expect _this_.

“It’s more convenient,” she shrugs, knowing full well that her reasoning won’t matter to the irate woman. “I can keep my credit cards, don’t need a new passport, stuff like that.”

The agent shakes her head. “Women these days, think they can have it all… and then say that it’s _convenient_. So disrespectful to the institution of marriage. And I can’t imagine that your husband likes it. What did he say about it?”

“ _He_ respects his wife’s decision,” Steve says. He must have snuck up on them and now pulls Darcy close and rests one hand on her hip. “She is his equal after all, not his subordinate. And a name change is really not important. If you think that’s what makes it a good, long-lasting marriage, you’re wrong,” he states. “And why did you assume that we didn’t decide upon a family name? I could’ve taken her name just as easily. You could’ve checked if I go by Steve Lewis now.”

The agent gapes at him and Darcy smirks, understanding her reaction. Steve is in full uniform, even carrying the shield on his back, which is already quite a sight. And now he’s making unexpectedly feminist statements.

“However,” Steve continues, “I don’t, because a name is not important and we’re still our own persons; a marriage license doesn’t change that.”

For a brief moment, Darcy is unsure how to react as well. “Steven,” she says, and looks up at him in a way that will hopefully come across as adoring.

“Agent-” Steve stares the other agent up and down until his gaze finally drops to her badge that’s displayed on her hip. The silence in those few seconds is deafening, “Madison, you’ll excuse us.”

“Man, you’re really going for the ‘messing with SHIELD personnel’,” Darcy comments as soon as they are out of earshot.

He drops his hand from her hip and shrugs. “Bullies… they just get to me, okay? And don’t tell me that that wasn’t fun for you either. Sometimes messing with bullies is far more effective than giving them a piece of their mind.”

“It is,” Darcy agrees. “I just didn’t expect that you would take to it so well.”

“Oh, my dear wife, over the course of our marriage you will find out that I am, indeed, full of surprises.”

Darcy gapes at him for a moment before she punches him in the arm playfully. “You can sass all the other SHIELD employees, okay? But not me, _your wife_.”

“As you wish.”

Darcy narrows her eyes at him, but a group passes them, which keeps her from retorting.

He follows her to her cube. A hush falls over the area within seconds. A visit from Captain America is probably the highlight of their week, if not month. Maybe Darcy should send a memo to the entire floor, telling them to just get used to it and to continue with their lives. Steve probably won’t even stick around long enough for it to become normal. Their marriage has an expiration date, after all.

“What’re you doing?” Darcy asks when he puts his shield down by his feet and casually leans against the edge of her desk, looking around.

“Finding out where you work. Now that everything’s out in the open, I can spend time with you on SHIELD premises.”

Kelly from the cube next to her sighs loudly. Darcy shakes her head at him for a moment. This surprisingly sassy side of him is somewhat endearing – and annoying.

“I thought you were doing okay,” Steve comments before Darcy can make a remark of her own. “Feeling better and all. Why are you on desk duty?”

“I’m on administrative leave, until further notice,” Darcy explains.

“They put you on leave?” Steve asks, incredulous. “What for? I was cleared for duty weeks ago.”

“Well, there’s the thing with the broken ribs, you know. Also, you’re Captain America, high value asset that’s needed in the field. I’m the rookie that stole Captain America’s virginity,” Darcy states out matter-of-factly.

“You didn’t.”

“Right… I told you about our suspicious absence of sex as newlyweds.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Steve points out. “I said that you didn’t punch my v-card.”

Darcy stares at him for a second until she comprehends what he is telling her – and in extension the entire office. “Why, Captain America!” she exclaims, pretending to be scandalised, causing Steve to grin. “I would never!”

He just shrugs, his grin widening. “I’m your husband, right? Did we never talk about these things?”

“Well, I prefer to think that our marriage is really all about support and emotional connection. Not the super acrobatic super soldier sex we’re totally not having.”

He stops for a moment and listens. The work area is still suspiciously silent; you could probably hear a pin drop. He smirks at her and Darcy raises her eyebrows.

“What are you working on?” he asks, changing the topic, probably because he doesn’t want to overdo it.

“Data analysis. I’m applying my extensive hacking skills to figure out patterns in the data SHIELD provided. A 12-year old with excel skills could do it,” Darcy complains.

“You’ll be fine,” Steve says, sounding sincere. “Sooner or later they’ll have to put you back on active duty. Just don’t get fired in the interim. I’m not paying for spousal support,” he jokes.

“Well, it’s _your_ fault my career at SHIELD took a nosedive after my first solo mission,” Darcy shoots back good-naturedly. “But I’m not planning to get fired any time soon. And until I’m put back into the field, I’m moneypenny-ing the shit out of this.”

“Well, field work is not for everyone,” Steve says lightly.

Darcy squints at him. “Did you just quote James Bond at me?”

Steve grins and shrugs.

“I have to say, I’m impressed,” Darcy admits.

“Anyway,” Steve says, getting up, “let me know if you want me to pull some strings. You’re married to top brass now, you know. I have connections. If I were you, I would use them before I become the vindictive ex-husband.”

“I thought we’re getting an annulment?” Darcy says. In the cubicle on the other side, where an older analyst named Mark sits, there’s an audible gasp from at least three people. “Then you’ll technically never be my ex-husband. _Technically_ we’ll never have been married,” Darcy points out.

Steve rolls his eyes good-naturedly. “Technicalities… My offer still stands, though.”

“Thank you, but I prefer to make a career at SHIELD without the stale stench of nepotism.”

“An idealist.” He shakes his head, grinning. “I should’ve known.”

“Takes one to know one,” Darcy retorts.

He puts the shield on his back, attaching it to his harness with a soft clink. “I’ll see you around?”

Darcy nods and turns back to her screen.

“And for the record,” Steve whispers, ensuring that only Darcy can hear, “your idea about messing with SHIELD is genius. Whatever you want to tell people about our relationship status, I’m _always_ up for the challenge.”

Darcy’s head swivels back around but Steve just winks at her and leaves. Darcy stares after him for a moment, before she gets up from her desk to look over the wall of her cubicle. “Yo, Steve,” she yells after him, fully aware that the entire office is listening in. “Anybody ever called you ‘Captain’ in bed?”

He turns around to look at her, his grin turning devious. “My dear wife: How about ‘not yet’?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SHIELD’s Dark Money Pool: Civil Asset Forfeiture is very real – and a real problem. If you’re feeling like ruining the rest of your day and getting really upset about this, here are some links to get you started.  
> [Here’s a video that explains it (John Oliver)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks)  
> [Several](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/12/taken) [explanatory](https://theconversation.com/how-the-government-can-steal-your-stuff-6-questions-about-civil-asset-forfeiture-answered-81973) [newspaper](http://www.nationalreview.com/article/448942/civil-asset-forfeiture-police-abuse-clarence-thomas) [articles](http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/10/11/asset-seizures-fuel-police-spending)  
> [Obviously poor people and people of colour are disproportionally affected by this](http://reason.com/blog/2017/06/13/poor-neighborhoods-hit-hardest-by-asset)  
> [Some](http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news/uncovering-philly-law-enforcement-s-secret-bank-accounts/article_e451c942-9d73-11e7-af76-3f98de79b735.html) [truly](https://www.splcenter.org/news/2017/11/02/alabama-man-died-then-cash-strapped-prosecutors-fought-his-family-his-house) [horrible](https://theintercept.com/2017/10/13/ice-hsi-asset-forfeiture-handbook/) [examples](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/1/16686014/phillip-parhamovich-civil-forfeiture)  
> [There’s bipartisan support to severely restrict asset forfeiture.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/07/20/right-and-left-unite-against-jeff-sessionss-latest-outrage) [The Trump administration wants to expand this further.](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/jeff-sessions-treads-on-the-property-rights-of-americans/533979/)
> 
> Anyway, I’m not gonna go be all “Call you Congressman/Congresswoman!” about this (my Congressman is Chris Evans’ uncle in case you’re interested but I can’t vote for him or anybody else since I’m an immigrant), but, as some of you guys know from my past work: I am politically interested and it influences my stories. Also: Stay safe out there.
> 
> On the more fun side: The “having been called Captain in bed” thing is from a 2011 interview with Chris Evans during the press tour for the first Cap movie. Yes, I’ve been waiting for YEARS to use this line in a fic. [The link is here (he says it at around the 1:25 mark)](http://www.mtv.com/video-clips/7pna36/the-yes-no-show-with-chris-evans)
> 
> And yes, there’s a reference to Disney’s Aladdin in this. Also The Princess Bride, for obvious reasons. And a less than obvious James Bond-reference other than the two Steve makes.


	8. Chapter 8

### Chapter 8

“So,” Darcy sits down next to Sharon in the cafeteria where the latter is sitting alone at a table, picking unenthusiastically at her salad. “Kate, huh? Do I want to know why one of SHIELD’s finest is living next to Captain America and pretending to be a nurse?”

Darcy had recognised Sharon immediately, but had decided not to blow her cover, waiting until Steve was on a mission to search her out. She knew Sharon from basic training, because Agent 13 from SHIELD special services had been one of the instructors that taught the few female trainees in class about specialised knowledge needed by women in the field. With only Sharon and Darcy and three other female applicants, two of which did not make it through basic training, the hierarchy lines had started to blur quickly. It had taken one dry comment from Darcy about how guys didn’t need to learn how to run in 4-inch heels and the fine art of seduction for them to build some kind of rapport. Sharon had made it clear that the majority of female SHIELD agents, no matter their speciality, supported each other since SHIELD was such a testosterone filled place.

Sharon sighs deeply and puts down her fork. “It’s orders from up high. I dislike it as much as you do. Also, you’re his ‘friend’?”

“That’s true,” Darcy says. “Well, mostly… we’re getting there. Shared amnesia is a surprisingly effective basis for friendship.”

“For what it’s worth: I’m there to protect him. Not to spy on him,” Sharon explains.

Darcy raises her eyebrows at that. “From the ninjas that might break into his third-floor apartment?”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Anybody else from SHIELD in the building?”

“No, just me.”

They are silent for a moment. “The thing is,” Darcy says pensively, “does SHIELD really have his best interest at heart? I mean, I could understand that Steve had a protective detail at first that’s making sure that the man out of time is adjusting okay… But to have someone watching him now… Why the secrecy? And why would he need it?”

“Yeah,” Sharon nods. “I get you. It’s rough when they make you spy on your own. I mean, I’m there for his protection, but the secrecy is off-putting. Still, it’s my job and I’m good at it.”

“Anything else that SHIELD is doing to make sure that Captain America is not having a mental breakdown on the regular? Bugs maybe?”

Sharon shrugs. “I’m not monitoring any audio or visual feeds.”

Darcy hums noncommittally.

“I knew you two didn’t carry out a clandestine affair, by the way. I would’ve heard.”

“Ewwwww. That’s really not something I want to think about.”

“The walls are very thin.” Sharon grins mischievously. “So if you need me to turn the radio to full volume at some point, let me know.”

Darcy snorts. “Not going to happen.”

“So, you’re not going to yell at me?” Sharon finally asks.

Darcy frowns at her. “No, why would I? It’s not your fault. Like I said: It’s mostly SHIELD and their attitude that’s bothering me. I’ll probably try to find out who of the SHIELD higher-ups assigned you and yell at them for the invasion of privacy. And how ludicrous it is to assign a protective detail to my husband, the finest soldier in history.” She grins widely.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Sharon asks.

“Oh yes, I’ll take full advantage of being Mrs Captain America – for as long as this sham of marriage might last. Steve is totally trolling people as well.”

“I’ve heard about that,” Sharon tells her, grinning. “What are you telling people this week? That SHIELD arranged your marriage to help Steve adjust?”

“That we were successfully set up by the Black Widow, actually. Clint suggested that we try ‘our changed marital status is due to a computer glitch’ next.”

Sharon laughs softly and shakes her head.

“Keep me in the loop about all the rumours that might develop,” Darcy requests good-naturedly. “And if there’s a pool – any kind of pool – let me know, and we can win big time.”

“Hey, didn’t you just marry rich?”

“Sadly, our prenup is ironclad,” Darcy shoots back.

Sharon finishes her meal and gets up to leave.

“Oh, and Darcy,” she says, turning around, a determined expression on her face, “I don’t know if you guys have noticed the weird buzzing in the kitchen lights, but you should check it out. I just had to have mine replaced.”

~*~

To say that Darcy was overwhelmed would be an understatement. Darcy was full-on panicking.

She had felt protected in the car, even though it was stolen and there was still an Interpol notice out for her arrest, but now, out in the open, she felt anxious and vulnerable even with Captain America by her side. Now, she was carrying a wide array of fake passports, a large sum of cash, and spy equipment ranging from in-ear comm links to garter holsters.

So far there had been no problems. They’d made it onto the ferry, posing a married couple, their fake passports rousing no suspicion, and settled in for the 90-minute ferry ride. They’d chosen a bench in a secluded corner, where there was little chance that they could be overheard.

“There is nothing to worry about,” she muttered under her breath “All the other passengers appear normal. People on vacation, family holiday, truck drivers. Nothing out of the ordinary. Really nothing out of the ordinary,” she repeated to herself.

Steve looked at her for a moment. “Don’t worry. I covered all the exits. Anything suspicious, we’ll be out of here, 10 seconds tops.”

“And then what? Jump into the channel? And swim?” her voice sounded a little shrill.

“We’ll be fine.”

Darcy tried to sit back and relax in her seat, to look like a carefree young woman on an ordinary trip with her husband. She had trained for this. This was what she was meant to do. This was just another mission and she was good at this. She took a deep breath and surveyed her surroundings, noticing that they were generating a fair amount of attention. Well, not they, per se. Steve was getting more than a few appraising looks from their fellow travellers.

“We should’ve changed your hair, too,” Darcy whispered regretfully. “That stubble isn’t going to fool anybody for long. Damn jawline of justice.”

He frowned, contemplating her remark. “Would it make you feel safer if I did? Change my hair, I mean.”

“Yes?” Darcy said, sounding a little unsure.

“Then I’ll gladly sacrifice my hair for you, as soon as we have a chance,” he said earnestly.

“You don’t have to,” Darcy immediately started to protest.

“It’s alright. It’s only fair. Besides, I’ve always wanted a reason to get a full makeover.” He grinned at her, which put her slightly more at ease.

“Okay,” Darcy agreed, smiling. “We’ll also need to expand our wardrobe,” she added.

“Good thinking. First, we need to get to London and find a place to lay low. It’s easier to into the crowds of a large city. Being on the road with nowhere to hide is a lot more difficult. Then, we can figure out the best way to find out more about the victim’s trades.”

“Not necessarily,” Darcy felt obligated to point out, “London has one of the highest densities of CCTV cameras in the world.”

“Then we’ll just be extra careful.”

“Have you been to London since-” A teenager walked past, giving Steve an appraising look and Darcy cut herself off, knowing the implication was clear anyway.

“No, I haven’t.”

“Yeah, you guys were suspiciously absent to help you know who clean up the mess afterwards,” Darcy joked quietly.

“I was busy,” he deadpanned. “And you know who seemed like he had it under control.”

“Still, you could’ve helped with the cleaning.” Darcy shrugged, surveying the room again. Still no suspicious behaviour.

“What are you doing?” Steve asked a few minutes later, breaking the silence.

“Remembering my training: surveying the people, trying to figure out if anybody around here is going to do anything weird.”

“And I got the exits and escape routes covered,” Steve added.

“Yup, you do exit strategies and battle plans, I read people.”

He nodded. “Sounds like we have our individual assignments then.”

~*~

Darcy knocks on Steve’s door that night. She’d left Steve a cryptic message about wanting to check out his home entertainment system once he returned from his mission and had promised to bring food and a movie. Steve thinks that there’s more to it, but he hasn’t had the opportunity to ask.

“Hey Darcy,” he says, stepping aside and letting her in.

She holds up a bag with food. “Hey Steve, I brought Chinese takeout and a movie – you okay with that?”

“Sure,” he answers.

She heads straight for the kitchen and starts putting the food onto the countertop.

“How was your day?” she asks.

“It was alright,” Steve answers, “same old, same old. Glad to be back into the field though.”

“Yeah, I envy you,” she says wistfully.

“Do you know if you’ll have to retake your first mission?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. SHIELD reports it as successful, right? There’s no reason for me to question that.”

Steve squints at her for a moment. At the beginning of the week, she’d had been so adamant that the written report about her first mission was a fake. He wasn’t expecting this reply at all.

He opens his mouth to say something, but Darcy preempts him. “So I got everything, because I didn’t know what you liked,” she says.

At the same time, she puts her hands onto the countertop, squats a little and turns her head to her right, looking intently at the lights that are installed under his cabinets.

“Darcy, what are you-” Steve begins, but Darcy turns around and puts a finger on her lips, quietly shushing him.

Steve frowns at her, but she returns to what she’s doing and 10 seconds later she turns back around holding her hand out to him.

Steve stares in shock at the bug in her hand and looks up, wide-eyed, at Darcy. She shrugs apologetically.

“So,” she says loudly, “you okay with the food?”

“Yeah,” Steve says slowly.

“Great,” Darcy nods to herself, “I brought _The Producers_. We can just put it on and watch it together?”

“Yeah,” Steve agrees, “that sounds like fun.”

He goes to put the movie on in his living room, but instead of watching it and eating, Darcy systematically searches through his apartment, finding bug after bug after bug. Steve trails behind her, becoming increasingly annoyed by how heavily he’s being monitored. Darcy finds a few more bugs in his kitchen; the living room is basically bug-infested and Steve is really annoyed by the number of listening devices that Darcy finds in his bedroom. Much to his surprise, Darcy doesn’t get rid of them, but returns them to their original place.

Steve wants to ask Darcy what she’s doing, but she throws him cautious looks, quietly reminding him to be silent.

When she’s done, she yawns loudly and exaggeratedly. “I think I’m calling it a night,” she says loudly, “I’m too tired.” She turns the TV off.

“Okay,” Steve says, momentarily stunned.

Darcy throws him a telling look. “I’ll head home.”

It takes Steve a moment to realise what she’s getting at. “How did you get here?” he asks.

“Public transport.”

“I’ll walk you to the Metro,” he announces.

As soon as they are out of earshot of his apartment, Steve stops and explodes. “What the hell?!”

“Yeah, I know.”

“No, what fuck?” He stares at Darcy, who just shrugs. “This is- I don’t- wow, I never expected this. This is fucking outrageous.” He takes a deep breath. “How did you know?” Steve then asks.

Darcy looks thoughtful for a moment. “I had a hunch.”

“You had a hunch?” Steve repeats.

“Yeah,” Darcy simply says.

They continue walking. “Does this hunch also tell you who did this?”

“I’m guessing it’s SHIELD,” Darcy says confidently. “If you confront them about it, they’ll probably tell you it was for your own safety.”

Steve’s eyebrows rise to his hairline. “My safety?”

“Yeah, probably something for the greater good.”

Steve quietly shakes his head. “So does this hunch also tell you what to do with them?”

Darcy shakes her head. “Not yet, but I’ll find out. Just don’t do anything stupid while I work on the solution.”

“Aren’t you just going to get rid of them?”

“Yes? No? I don’t know yet. Like I said, I’ll figure it out. Just behave normally while I’m working on it.”

“Normally how?”

“I don’t know,” Darcy says with a teasing glint in her eyes. “Do the things you did before you found out that SHIELD is listening in on everything you do. You know, continue singing along to Beyoncé out loud. Spend an entire day commenting on the ‘Say yes to the dress’ marathon. Have some weird freaky, noisy sex with random strangers.”

“Hey, those dresses are really impressive,” Steve counters. “And I just want them all to be happy.”

Darcy stares at him.

“I’m joking. But, as you might’ve guessed already, my life is pretty boring.”

“Not any longer now that I’m in it,” Darcy teases.

“True,” Steve says honestly and notices Darcy blushing.

She clears her throat. “Well, I guess now we know how SHIELD could confirm so quickly that we honestly didn’t have a clandestine affair,” Darcy says, sounding all business-like. “Though I wonder why they brought this up at all… We were gone for two weeks; I imagine the tapes from your apartment were the first things they investigated. They should’ve known that we didn’t know each other. It makes no sense to mention it at all.”

“Yeah,” Steve admits, “put that on the list of all the other shady stuff that SHIELD has done. It probably ranks below the question why they forged a mission report in your name. By the way, good thinking on your part. I was really confused for a moment, but you covered your tracks really well.”

“Thanks.”

“Did you find out anything further?” Steve asks.

“No,” Darcy sighs, “I’m keeping a low profile as agreed, but if I look anything up it’s just dead end after dead end after dead end.”

“Sorry,” Steve says. “And sorry that I’m not much more of a help.”

“Well, right now I’m actually hoping that the super soldier serum will help and eventually repair the neurons in your brain so that you’ll remember. At least something, anything. That would be a great help. Anything that would make our search less searching for a needle in a gigantic haystack. We just need one lead, one piece of information other than the obvious that would put us in any direction.”

“And one that puts us ahead of SHIELD.”

“At this point,” Darcy admits, “I’m willing to take anything. Even if it’s a lead that confirms that we basically became Bonnie and Clyde for two weeks and went on an all-out crime spree. Anything is better than not knowing.”

~*~

“My hair has never been this short.” Steve scratched his scalp self-consciously. “Except, maybe, at birth.”

Darcy took a step back and admired her handiwork. She had dyed his hair in a darker shade first and then shorn it off. It worked really well with the three days of stubble he was now sporting. The transformation was incredible; nobody would recognise him as Captain America now.

“I thought all new recruits got a buzz cut upon enlistment,” she told him.

He shook his head. “Not in my time. That would probably have caused a riot. God, Bucky would’ve-”

He stopped abruptly and ducked his head. Silently, he got up, swept together his shorn hair and put it in the waste in the little bathroom of the hotel room they’d chosen as their temporary hideout.

“So,” Darcy switched topics as she followed him back into the bedroom and sat down on the bed. “We’re in London. What do we do next?”

Steve sat on the only available chair in the room, “We have to find out why Kiesewetter was killed. I mean, I think we have enough reason to think that some people at SHIELD, whoever they are, had him killed, but we don’t know the reason why. And it must have to do with his job.”

Darcy nodded.

“Can we look at the data once more?”

She opened the laptop and pulled up Kiesewetter’s emails and trades from the past few weeks. Steve contemplated them for a moment.

“I mean, we only have the trading numbers and the counter party, but don’t really know what he did,” Darcy pointed out. “And data mining that stuff would take time we don’t have. Even if we knew what we’re looking for.”

“It’s enough to find out,” Steve said confidently, “it’s the financial world, there are records and regulations. If he was doing unsavoury stuff, he would’ve been careful and tried not to rouse suspicions on that front. And in the grand scope of things, he’s relatively small. He’s not the investment branch at UBS, Morgan Stanley or anything.” He looked at the emails again. “I mean,” he said more to himself, “nobody can keep him from making these trades. They’re all perfectly legal. The only thing that would rouse suspicion is volume, so he traded at different markets, and finding out from them directly would be too difficult. However, all of them are cleared by a central counterparty, so we can find out from them.” He looked up at Darcy expectantly.

Darcy stared at him for a moment, unable to reply. “I understood those words separately but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“He spread his trades over several exchanges so that his trading volume wouldn’t rouse suspicion,” Steve explained patiently. “You with me so far?”

Darcy nodded.

“Here in London he traded with the London Metal Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. Finding out from them is too risky, or needs resources we don’t have.”

“I could hack them,” Darcy offered.

“I really don’t want to interfere with financial markets and bring the system to a crashing halt if we – you – do anything wrong. I really don’t want ESMA on our tails, as well.”

“Remind me what ESMA is again?”

“European Securities and Markets Authority,” Steve defined, “it’s like the SEC – Securities and Exchange Commission – in the US. They’re both financial markets watchdogs.”

“How do you know all this? Do you moonlight as an investment banker on your off days?” Darcy peered at him curiously.

“I have some money,” Steve said with a shrug, trying to appear casual, “so I read up on financial markets and products and all that. For sound investment decisions.”

“And you remember all this?”

“I have near eidetic memory thanks to the serum,” Steve admitted, a little sheepishly.

“Is that a blessing or a curse?”

“Bit of both, but that’s not really the point right now. The point I’m trying to make is that we hit up the intermediary, the central clearing house. This is far more low profile. Sure, ESMA would care about the breach, but by that point we’ll be long gone.”

“What’s a clearing house?” Darcy asked.

“It clears financial transactions. For most of the securities and derivatives there’s an intermediary between the two trading partners. Lowers the risk and all that.”

“So he reported all of his trades to them.”

“Yup, and paid them a fee.”

“How do we find out which one he used?”

“There aren’t that many and most of them post what they offer online,” Steve said, “So: Google.”

It took them less than five minutes to find out that the London Metal Exchange cleared their trades with LCH.Clearnet and then another minute to figure out where the offices were located.

“It’s in a low security office building. Look at the other tenants.” Steve pointed at the screen. “See the dental practice in that building? That’s our way in.”

~*~

Darcy manages to catch up with Sharon three days later.

“Hey,” she into step next to her.

“Hey,” Sharon answers dispassionately, eyeing the two SHIELD agents walking past.

“You were right about the lights,” Darcy says conversationally. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Though they’re still driving me crazy. We haven’t figured out yet how to fix them.”

Sharon hums noncommittally, but doesn’t say anything.

Darcy looks at her expectantly. “So…?” she prompts.

Another few agents pass. “Did you watch the newest episode of Dog Cops last night?” Sharon asks suddenly.

Darcy frowns at her. “What? I don’t think that’s-”

“They brought back the beagle with the designer collar, from Internal Affairs,” Sharon cuts her off. “Turned out he was dirty.”

“I thought the Captain was-” Darcy begins, but stops abruptly, as Sharon looks at her intently.

“So Sergeant Whiskers, Detective Buster and Detective Coco set up this elaborate plan where they pretended that they were planning something big, something dirty, but it was just a trap because they knew that they were monitored.”

Darcy stares at Sharon for full 10 seconds. The plot doesn’t make any sense and if Darcy remembers correctly, there was no new episode last night. Added to that, Sharon gives her a meaningful look, so it’s probably supposed to have a double meaning.

“You totally lost me,” Darcy tells her honestly.

Sharon lets out a long-suffering sigh, before she looks around and finally ushers Darcy into the next empty room. She fiddles with her watch for a moment.

“We won’t be overheard,” she explains.

“Watch,” Darcy nods appreciatively. “Old school.”

“Family heirloom.”

“So there’s no chance of me getting one of those?”

“Doesn’t your husband have a direct line to Tony Stark?” Sharon retorts. “You can ask him.”

“Steve doesn’t really. I mean,” Darcy adds when she sees Sharon open her mouth, “he does have a direct line, but from what I’ve gathered, they aren’t exactly BFFs.”

“And you’d think defeating aliens together would make you friends.”

Darcy shrugs. “I don’t know. Anyway, I think you were trying to explain something to me? I know you’re the master of spy talk, but I’m just beginning to get it.”

Sharon grins slightly. “Sometimes I forget how new you are. I was trying to tell you to use your knowledge that you’re being overheard. You know have the option to control what the other side hears.”

“So no getting rid of them,” Darcy says more to herself. “They’ll just replace them, won’t they?”

“Yes, probably.”

“So, figure out how the audio surveillance works, maybe reverse engineer it, and hack it.”

Sharon nods approvingly. “You’ll be able to do that.”

“And they’ll need to hear something to make it believable,” Darcy continues contemplatively. “Steve will be gone the next couple of days, which means less surveillance, right? I have a key to his place, I can try it out.”

“A key, huh?” Sharon grins knowingly.

“Shut up,” Darcy shoots back good-naturedly. “What about our phones?” she then asks as an afterthought. “Any chance of anybody listening in on those?”

Sharon looks thoughtful for a moment. “What kind do you have? Company issued ones?”

“No, Stark prototypes. It’s a Stark issued phone, let’s put it that way. He gave them to me and Steve as well as Jane and Thor.”

“Oh, those are okay if you have them on both ends. SHIELD hasn’t managed to penetrate Tony Stark’s encryption yet – and I doubt they ever will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of financials in here. I hope you guys understood what I was getting at... if not, let me know?
> 
> Dog Cops is from the Hawkeye comics by Matt Fraction (it’s amazing, even Wolverine is addicted). For Sharon’s makeshift story, I borrowed some of the dogs from:  
> ["Previously on Dog Cops..."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/667176) by Beth H (bethbethbeth)  
> [Fenestration and the Art of Self Defense](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1617737) by Airawyn (a fandom classic, seriously. You should go read it right now.)


	9. Chapter 9

### Chapter 9

Darcy is at Steve’s place a few days later, when he has a break between missions for a change. She has successfully overridden the bugs and is sure that they won’t be overheard – or rather, that SHIELD is now listening to them quietly reading on the couch. Steve is going through his accumulated mail from the past few days. He opens a large envelope at the bottom of the pile of mail and then stops short.

“What?” Darcy asks.

He hands it over to her. “Our marriage certificate has arrived.”

Darcy takes it from him and looks at it with a sort of reverence. Of course she’s seen the copy, she and Steve handed it in to SHIELD a few weeks back to update their personnel records, but having the real thing in her hands now makes it somehow more tangible.

She squints at it first, then holds it against the light. “Seems legit,” she pronounces.

Steve takes it back from her and looks at it for another moment, before placing it on the table. “There’s also a picture and a note,” he tells her, placing them both on the table as well.

“Well, this kind of puts an end to all the residual doubt if our marriage was legal or not,” Darcy remarks. “There it is, a fully executed and notarised marriage certificate and photographic evidence.”

“And now we can get a divorce, right? We’re still doing it?” Steve asks carefully.

“Divorce is easier than annulment, especially if it’s uncontested,” Darcy agrees. “Yeah, divorce is probably the way to go.”

“Good,” Steve nods. “We’ll get a lawyer and figure out the particulars.”

“You especially should get a lawyer,” Darcy reminds him. “Protection of your assets and all that. All I brought to this marriage are my student loans and my charming personality.”

Steve grins for a moment. “Do you think we should let SHIELD know?” he then asks.

Darcy shrugs. “Probably, wouldn’t it be suspicious if we kept them out of the loop?”

“Yeah… I mean, they’ll likely offer to take care of the legal stuff as well, since our divorce is part of an active case.”

“I’d rather not,” Darcy immediately says.

“No, neither do I, but we should cover this.”

“At the rate that everything related to our two-week adventure is going, getting any help would probably take years,” Darcy points out. “Let’s just find a lawyer on the internet and I’ll be out of your hair before you even know it.” Darcy picks up the picture that came with the certificate and examines it. It shows the two of them in an awkward embrace on some sort of gangplank by the water. So they got married at a Maltese beach then. Seems like a perfect destination wedding. “And speaking of hair: God, I was really blonde.”

“We really don’t look like ourselves,” Steve agrees, when he takes a look as well.

“And we look terribly awkward,” Darcy judges. “Not at all like a couple in love.” She turns the picture over. “Look, there’s something written on the back.”

“‘Darcy & Steve – a kiss for good luck’,” Steve reads out loud. “Weird, but we probably needed that, being fugitives and all.”

“I’m kind of disappointed we didn’t send ourselves a message… like a treasure map on the back side of the Declaration of Independence.”

“A treasure map on the-” Steve begins. “Do I even want to know?”

“Trust me, you don’t.”

Steve takes the picture from Darcy and squints at it for a moment.

“What?” Darcy asks.

“Those are not our rings,” he states.

Darcy frowns at him. “What?”

“Look at it, the rings we’re wearing in our wedding photo are not the rings we woke up with.”

Darcy takes the picture back from him and looks at it as well.

“We woke up with platinum wedding bands, right? And you had a really fancy diamond engagement ring,” Steve explains.

“Right,” Darcy continues, “but we’re both wearing really simple gold wedding bands in this photo. And I’m not wearing an engagement ring.”

They stare at each other for a moment. “Why-” Darcy cuts herself off, shaking her head slightly. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she finally says.

“It doesn’t,” Steve agrees. “Why would we change wedding rings at some point? And get you a fancy diamond ring, too?”

They are silent for a moment, but they both can’t come up with a good explanation.

“Anything on that note?” Darcy then asks.

“‘Captain & Mrs. Rogers,’” Steve reads out loud.

“Well, that’s the first and only time I’m being called Mrs. Rogers,” Darcy comments dryly.

“‘It has been an honour to marry you. I am certain that a couple as much in love as you will have a long, happy, and blessed life together.’” Steve stops, confused. “It’s so weird,” he ponders out loud, “like from a parallel universe. The emphasis on the love between us. Do you think we were just really good at pretending?”

“Yeah, this definitely feels like an alternate universe. We might have played the sickenly cute couple in order to facilitate the nuptials… It was a spur of the moment thing and all that?” Darcy suggests. “Or maybe it’s just a boilerplate letter they write to everybody.”

Steve shrugs, and continues reading aloud. “‘All the best for your future. May God bless you with a happy healthy pregnancy-’” He stops abruptly and stares at the page.

“Wait, what?!” Darcy exclaims, moving beside him to stare at the letter in his hands.

Steve clears his throat. “‘May God bless you with a happy, healthy pregnancy and I am happier in knowing that a baby will be born in the arms of such loving parents like you.’” He looks up and stares at Darcy in shock.

Darcy rips the note from Steve’s hands, thinking, hoping, that maybe he’s just messing with her, but of course he isn’t. There, in black and white, the person who’d married them also congratulated them on her pregnancy. She reads the note three times and then looks up at Steve, who’s still looking at her like she just transformed into a three-headed monster right in front of his eyes.

“Well,” Darcy finally says, “I’m not pregnant. Definitely not.” She sees that Steve doesn’t entirely believe her. “110%,” she adds.

“But why-” Steve visibly struggles to put his thoughts into words. “Why would the officiant think that you were?”

Darcy throws her hands up in frustration. “I don’t know! Why did we get married? Why do we no longer have our original wedding bands? Why did we pretend that I’m pregnant? I don’t know!”

“Maybe it’s all related? We played the completely love-struck couple to expedite the whole marriage thing? And we fabricated a pregnancy to explain why we needed to get married right away?” he suggests. “Malta, from what I know, seems very… catholic. They’d assume that with a baby on the way we wanted to get married ASAP?”

“It still doesn’t explain why we decided to get married to begin with,” Darcy says quietly.

“No, it doesn’t.”

Darcy sighs in frustration. In the back of her mind, she’d hoped that maybe the marriage certificate would answer some questions, but now it seems that it raises even more. She takes up the envelope the certificate arrived in. Maybe there is a hint about the growing mystery that is their marriage. She examines the stamp and frowns at it in confusion.

“What?” Steve asks.

“This was posted in the Caribbean,” Darcy says.

Steve groans. “Please, god, not another mystery. Let’s just chalk that up as a mix-up in the postal service.”

Darcy puts the envelope aside and looks at the picture once more. “Maybe we were in the Caribbean,” she speculates out loud.

“We got married on Malta,” Steve disagrees. “You just looked at the original marriage certificate that was issued by the marriage registry of Malta’s capital Valletta.”

Darcy hands him the picture. “We’re standing by the water, on a wooden gangplank and there’s something like a fence in the background. Maybe that’s a ship’s rail. Maybe we got married on a boat.”

Steve finally comprehends what Darcy is telling him. “If you get married on a ship, you get married in the country the ship’s registered in.”

“Exactly. Maybe you were a few weeks ago when you suggested that maybe we weren’t even on Malta.”

“Maybe we were on Maltese territory outside the country.”

“Yup,” Darcy jumps up and gets her computer, pulling up Google. “There was only one ship during that time frame that was registered in Malta,” she tells Steve excitedly a few moments later. “We might actually be able to trace our movements.”

“How many people are there on a cruise ship? Two thousand? Three thousand?”

“Doesn’t matter,” she announces. “It’s no longer a gigantic needle in the haystack. Apart from the baby that doesn’t exist and the weird thing with the rings, this is our first solid lead.”

~*~

“Do I want to know what a vampire facelift is?” Darcy said into comms. “This place does way more than your ordinary house and garden dental work. And the interior looks like a spaceship.”

“I have to take your word for it,” Steve answers flatly.

“Don’t sulk, Captain, you know that this is the best plan. Just be on the lookout and make sure that our getaway is clear.”

“I still don’t like that I don’t have eyes on you.”

“Based on the fact that the last time I did this, I was framed for murder?” Darcy teased.

“Yup.”

“Still, out of the two of us, I’m the most qualified to do this. If we have to punch our way out of here, you can gladly take over.”

“Thanks,” Steve said dryly.

Their plan had started smoothly. Darcy had gained access to the office building pretending to have an appointment at the dental office. She then lifted the access badge from one of the employees at LCH.Clearnet on his way outside for lunch break. She found an empty office, hacked into the system and started transferring the data to an external drive.

She was just packing away her stuff when Steve swore. “Shit, we got company.”

Darcy couldn’t help it; she snorted. “That’s such a clichéd thing to say. In spy movies,” she explained.

“It’s also true.”

“Why, did three black SUVs with darkly tinted windows just appear in front of the building?” Darcy joked.

She could practically hear Steve roll his eyes at her on the other end. “Nope, but there are people here. Ex-military types clearly trying – and failing – to blend in.”

“You’ll have to teach me what gives them away,” Darcy told him.

“Well, for one their earpiece. And then it’s their bearings… You’ll have to see it. Once you know it’s very noticeable.”

“What are they doing?”

“Entering the building now.”

“Shit.”

“Can you stay where you are?” Steve suggested.

“Definitely not. I need to leave this place. If they’re locking down the building, it’ll become a death trap.”

“Any other exits?” Steve asked.

Darcy went to the office door and looked around. “Not as far as I can see.”

“God, I wished we’d planned this better and at least tried to get blueprints of the building.” He was silent for a moment. “There’s just one option then, I guess: Pull the fire alarm and hope that, in the ensuing evacuation, you can slip out unnoticed.”

Darcy looked around for a moment. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s so easy, they just have smoke detectors. I think I need to set fire to a wastebasket for real.”

She half expected Steve to protest for a moment, but he just okayed her plan and told her he would meet her at the street corner outside. Thankfully, Darcy managed to find a lighter in the desk she was sitting on and she started to set the paper in the wastebasket on fire before making her exit. Barely a minute later, the fire alarm sounded.

The employees looked confused for a moment, trying to figure out whether this was drill or not. But then, one after another, got up and made their way to the nearest exit, giving Darcy the opportunity to hide in the slowly evacuating crowd.

“Darcy,” Steve told her, “I’ve lost eyes on a few of them, they’ve gone inside. They might be on the lookout for you.”

“How many are there?” Darcy looked around but didn’t see anything suspicious.

“I can’t say for sure. Five at least, probably more.”

Darcy moved with the flow towards the exit. She finally made it to the ground floor, when she saw men standing close to the exit, making no move to evacuate and surveying the crowd very closely.

“Shit,” Darcy swore, “they’re covering the exits. I’m afraid I might get made.”

Steve swore as well. “Any chance for a distraction?” he asked.

“Without attracting any unnecessary attention to myself? No, definitely not.” Darcy moved slower towards the exit, but she was still getting close.

Steve was silent for a moment. “I’ll scramble the signal,” he then said decisively.

“What?”

“The radio signal. I actually have stuff to scramble it. It’ll make a very ugly sound and your ears will hurt like hell. It will give you a few seconds and you can manage to slip out under their noses.”

“Okay.”

“It’ll affect our comm link as well. So start a countdown to when you need the distraction and turn yours off by 5. That should work.”

It did indeed work. Whatever Steve did, the lookouts at the door grimaced in pain, touching their ears. Darcy slipped through, unnoticed, onto the street before turning her comm link back on.

She looked around but couldn’t find Steve. This didn’t worry her at first, since a large crowd had gathered outside due to f the fire alarm. She looked around. “Steve?” she said tentatively into comms, but he didn’t immediately answer. “Steve?” she repeated, trying not to panic, when the silence persisted.

“I’m here but I got made,” Steve responded five seconds later.

“What?”

“Just keep moving, I’ll catch up with you.”

“Steve-”

“Keep moving,” he cut her off. “I’ll find you.”

Darcy looked around once more, trying to find him, before she turned left and rounded a corner. She moved through the crowd, trying to be inconspicuous, occasionally looking behind her. After the first few hundred feet, she thought she’d made it. Then she heard heavy footsteps behind her.

Darcy peeked over her shoulder and saw two men. There was no mistaking that they were after her, gaining on her quickly with only a small group of tourists between them. She skipped around the next corner onto a street inaccessible to cars and took off, running as fast as she could.

She skirted around a few civilians in the street, occasionally glancing over her shoulder. She had managed to put distance between herself and her two pursuers, but now they were catching up to her, not caring about the civilians in their way.

Then they started shooting. Darcy flinched when she heard the first gunshot, and the bullet buried itself into a wall a few feet away from her. Then there was the tell-tale screaming of scared civilians that had just realised what was happening. Thankfully, they either jumped out of her way or dove for cover. Darcy quickly surveyed the area in front of her. There were too many civilians around, too much potential for collateral damage. She couldn’t outrun them forever. Her pursuers were gaining on her more quickly now, their aim improving with the diminishing distance between them. A few bullets hit a wall less than a foot away from her.

She had to take them out.

She ducked left into the next side street and then took an immediate right. There she stopped, pressed herself against the wall and waited. Her heart was pounding in her chest.

Darcy tried to quietly catch her breath and to concentrate. She needed to remember her training. She was outnumbered two to one and her opponents were armed and significantly taller and heavier than her. She didn’t feel prepared. She only had her basic hand-to-hand knowledge, surprise, and momentum on her side. She had to disarm them first.

She saw a doorway a few feet down the street that would provide even better cover for her and moved there. Darcy strained her ears to catch any sounds. A few moments later, she heard footsteps, slow and deliberate.

“We have to eliminate her,” the first man said urgently.

The second man shushed him. “I know the orders,” he then answered more quietly.

“We have to make her disappear. The other team will get the guy under control.”

“Be quiet. I know that she’s not important. We just have to make sure to hit her right this time.”

The footsteps came closer and Darcy stopped breathing. She waited until the two were directly in front of her, then moved forward, grabbed the first man’s outstretched gun hand and used the momentum to slam him into the wall. While he was momentarily disoriented, she wheeled around and kicked his partner between the legs. He yelped in pain and Darcy punched him in the face for good measure.

She turned around again and slammed her shoulder into the first man’s chest. He stumbled backwards against the wall once more and, momentarily stunned by the pain, loosened the hold on his weapon. Darcy wrestled it from him before hitting him in the face with the butt of the gun. He collapsed against the wall, unconscious.

His partner managed to gather his wits long enough to fire at her. Darcy felt pressure in her left shoulder and ducked immediately. Then she spun around, aimed, and fired at his knee. He howled in pain and crumbled to the ground. She kicked the gun out of his hand and then kicked him in the face once more. He fell to the ground, out cold.

Ten seconds later, Steve arrived, not even out of breath. He surveyed the scene before him for a moment, bent down to make sure that her two attackers were out for good and then approached her.

“Darcy-” he began, but then stopped himself. He looked meaningfully at the gun, still outstretched in her right hand. She put the safety on and let her hand fall to the side.

Darcy stared at Steve for a moment, wide-eyed. Then she started shaking. Objectively she knew that this was due to the adrenaline, but this was so much different from SHIELD training. She had just shot a guy. Not fatally but for real. She was not prepared for this.

Then she noticed the increasing bloodstain on her left sleeve and finally registered the pulsing pain. She let the gun fall onto the street and used her right hand to cover the wound. She took a deep breath, stepping toward Steve.

And promptly vomited at his feet.

~*~

Three days later, Darcy realises that even with the new lead any research into their time AWOL is still like searching a needle in the ever-growing haystack. Each unravelled clue leads to more questions. She manages to follow their movements onto the cruise ship and when they left it. They got onto the boat in Jamaica, as a late addition, and had probably disembarked with all the other passengers in Cozumel, Mexico, but from there on their tracks disappeared once again. She finds out that they used the aliases Joseph Turner and Katherine Hale while on board, but must’ve quickly burned them, because there is nothing on those passports afterwards, or before for that matter. She doesn’t find anything on the names they used. They probably used new fake identities for every leg of their journey, every flight they took, every reservation they made. They also didn’t use any SHIELD-assigned aliases and tracing the origin of the passports is impossible. They managed to cover their tracks expertly. If it weren’t for the fact that Darcy desperately wants to find out what is going on, she would be very impressed.

Steve is out of the country most of the time, being put on mission after mission after mission. Darcy’s only consolation is that Jane has finally moved to New York and that they have more frequent contact, now that they are once again both living in the same time zone. And Jane is planning on visiting in a few weeks, once she’s settled in and has gotten all her machinery ready.

“How’s the hubby doing?” Jane grins into her laptop camera.

“He’s not my hubby, he’s my amnesia buddy,” Darcy immediately corrects her. “We’re in this together; he doesn’t remember anything either. But, you know, that’s no basis for a healthy marriage. We’ll get divorced soon enough.”

“Thor will be devastated,” Jane says. “He was delighted when he heard about your marriage. He thinks Steve is perfect for you.”

“Whatever Thor thinks, I’d prefer to enter a marriage with all my faculties intact and actually remembering the ceremony. Anyway, I would prefer to not be Mrs. Captain America for the rest of my life. As nice, polite, and handsome as he is.”

“Well, you married the all-American dream boat.” Jane sighs dreamily.

“I’m the envy of every single SHIELD agent that ever had the good luck to see him in his uniform.” Darcy means to joke; however, it’s getting exhausting at work. Messing with SHIELD agents is only helping so much. She just wishes that they would all get over it and move on with their lives. She’s been married to Steve for almost two months now, it’s been five weeks since they returned to the US, it should really be old news. “But I’m pretty sure he has a bag load of issues that I really don’t want to deal with,” Darcy adds. “Like, waking up 7 decades in the future and finding out all your friends are dead. So yeah, we’re getting a divorce and that’s the end of it. Maybe we’ll remain friends afterwards.”

“Hopefully,” Jane says. “I mean, if you make it through a surprise marriage and a quickie divorce and, as it seems, a global adventure together, you’ll probably have a friendship for the ages.”

Darcy shrugs and doesn’t answer because she doesn’t want to talk about the nature of their relationship at this point. She’s not sure where she stands with Steve. She wishes he was around so she would have somebody to talk to, somebody to commiserate. But SHIELD keeps him plenty occupied with those high-profile top-secret missions whereas Darcy is kept busy with mindless data entry and analysis while she waits to be reinstated to her prior position. Lying low, as they agreed, becomes more and more difficult with each passing day.

“I did some research,” Jane announces, pulling Darcy out of her reverie, “about memory loss.”

“Oh,” Darcy is honestly surprised, “okay. What do you have?”

“It’s extremely unlikely that it’s the result of medication or injury,” Jane explains. “Because Steve doesn’t remember either and in those two cases the regenerative properties of the serum should’ve taken care of the memory loss, at least at this point. So it was either a procedure that you were subjected to, like some sort of brainwashing, or it’s psychological.”

“Psychological?” Darcy repeats, frowning.

“Yeah, I’m not sure about that,” Jane grimaces, “because psychology is not-” she trails off.

“Not enough of a hard science for you?” Darcy offers.

“Sort of but more: Brains are incredibly difficult to understand. But I got in touch with some people and, you know, you could forget stuff as a result of a trauma, it’s possible. Your mind is protecting you from yourself.”

“But how likely is it that two people experience the exact same blackout?” Darcy points out. “What kind of trauma would Steve and I have to endure that both our brains decide that it’s best if we don’t remember two full weeks?”

“Yeah, that’s what worries me. The sharp edges around your memories are suspicious, too. That you have the same beginning and end point of your blackout. But I’m just putting it out there, you know.”

“I’m more leaning towards the brainwashing procedure,” Darcy decides.

“Yup,” Jane nods. “Though I have to admit that brainwashing is very 1960s James Bond.”

“True. Are there any real examples of brainwashing outside of fiction?” Darcy asks.

Jane shrugs. “Not really, just rumours. The Nazis, obviously. Then the Russians, mostly. You know, all the stuff they supposedly did during the Cold War… But it’s all speculation, nothing’s ever been proven.”

“So it’s either a psychological phenomenon that we’ll probably never be able to explain or an experimental procedure right out of science fiction?” Darcy summarises.

“Yeah,” Jane looks apologetic, “not really a good prospect, either way. But look at it this way: If you and Steve were brainwashed, you might be the first real case. Might be the worthwhile studying if it turns out to be true.”

Darcy laughs. “Spoken like the true scientist that you are. I’ll let you know.”

“Well,” Jane announces, “I’ll be down in DC for some hands-on research with you soon. Before my next excursion.”

“Oh, right,” Darcy perks up, glad to have a chance to change the subject. “That’s coming up. Patagonia, right?”

“Exactly, it’s very exciting. The readings there might provide a complete picture-” Darcy lets Jane talk about her research, relieved to have the distraction. Her euphoria after the lead on the marriage certificate is long gone, she feels that she’s still treading water and the more she thinks about it, the more depressing it actually gets. They might have been subject to an experimental procedure; they might have done something so bad that their brain refuses to process it. Darcy isn’t sure what’s the bright side in all of this.

She doesn’t notice that Jane has stopped talking at first and is looking at her with a concerned expression. “You totally zoned out on me,” Jane says.

“Did not!” Darcy immediately protests.

“We’ve been working on science together that was, as you always said, beyond your comprehension at certain points. I know what you look like when you zone out,” Jane tells her without accusation.

“Sorry,” Darcy looks a little sheepish.

Jane’s concern deepens. “Seriously, are you alright?”

“Yeah, just frustrated. The lack of knowledge, of news, is grating on me. I have nobody to talk to… Steve is busy and I’m not sure if he’s really interested in finding out. He’s adjusting back to SHIELD routine just fine and… I don’t know. Should I just be content with never knowing?”

“You can talk to me,” Jane offers.

“Thanks, but that’s not really the same. You don’t even have experience from college, from being blackout drunk and missing a couple of hours because you were always knee-deep in your research and didn’t party.”

Jane stares at her.

“Sorry,” Darcy adds, “I didn’t mean that to be an accusation. It’s just difficult.”

“You know,” Jane begins slowly, “I bet SHIELD has psychologists on staff. You experienced trauma, maybe you should talk to a professional.”

“I’m not baring my soul to a SHIELD lackey,” Darcy snaps with a finality that visibly surprises Jane. “At this point I’ll have to be content with waiting and wishing.”

~*~

The Captain managed to evade the police that had assembled at the scene and to get them both back to the hotel without garnering too much attention. Once inside their hotel room, Darcy sagged onto the first available chair.

Steve eyed at her critically. “Okay, let me take care of your wound,” he said and then went to find a first-aid kit. It was just a flesh wound and it had almost stopped bleeding.

“I’m a terrible agent,” Darcy said quietly into the silent room. “They nearly got me.”

He turned around to look at her. “No,” he said firmly. “They didn’t get you. You managed to overpower two assailants who were taller and heavier than you, not to mention they were armed. Getting injured is part of the trade.”

“But-”

“No buts, Darcy, you’re a junior agent and especially considering that, you did great. If anything, I’m a terrible CO; first, I got you caught, and now I got you injured.”

“You’re not-” Darcy started protesting and stopped when she saw Steve’s meaningful look. “Okay, point taken.”

Steve moved the other chair closer, sat down and opened the first aid kid.

“I don’t have anything to close the wound,” he said apologetically. “We’ll just clean and bandage it and hope that’s enough.”

Darcy just nodded in understanding.

“You should-” he gestured at her shirt, “get it out of the way somehow.”

“Just rip off the sleeve,” Darcy told him, “I really don’t want to scandalise you with sitting here in just my bra.”

He muttered something under his breath, which Darcy didn’t catch, but then ripped the sleeve clean off at the seams and threw it onto the floor. He put on the surgical gloves and got to work.

“Ouch,” Darcy exclaimed at the unexpected sting of the antiseptic.

“Sorry!” Steve apologised, grimacing in empathy.

Darcy bit her lips while Steve took care of her wound, which was over within a matter of minutes. Afterwards he put a bandage on and poked it tentatively. “Yeah, I think that should work.”

“First aid not really your strong suit?”

“What do you think?” he countered.

He stood to clean up and Darcy allowed herself to think about the whole situation. The words the two men had spoken finally registered.

“I will be an also dead-” she whispered, more to herself.

“What’s that?” Steve asked.

“I’m gonna be an ‘also dead’,” Darcy struggled to explain, “you know, when the report about somebody’s death is not important. The two men, they said they’d kill me and get away with it.”

“Yes,” he said in brutal honesty, “they considered killing you once and making it look like an accident. Chances are, they will do it again. We have to assume that they’ll use maximum force.”

“But only on me,” Darcy continued, “they wanted to get you back under control – I don’t know how though. That’s way this is supposed to end: I’ll die and you’ll… be returned back to the fold.”

He looked at her earnestly. “I wouldn’t let that happen.”

“And how’re you going to do that?” Darcy exclaimed, sounding increasingly frantic. “They have resources and means. I’m already a wanted fugitive – wanted for murder! And you… your reputation protects you. The only thing that has kept them from putting out an APB on your name or putting you on Interpol’s red notice is probably the fact that you’re Captain America and making you a most wanted would attract attention! But not for me, I’m just a lowly newbie agent with connections to Thor. I could die at any time and nobody would bat an eyelash.”

“Darcy-”

“You’re an Avenger, they’ll have to be careful about you,” Darcy stated with finality, having calmed down somewhat. “But me, I’m just… me. They can make me disappear any second.”

He looked at her calculatingly. “I can protect you.”

“As nice as the gesture is, Steve, you can’t protect me 24/7.”

“No,” he shook his head, “but I can protect you with my name. Sure, at the moment you’re a nobody, but you can be somebody. You can become my wife and it’ll be a lot harder to make you disappear.”

Darcy stared at him, unblinking, for a long moment. “That’s so not how I expected this conversation to go. Did you just propose marriage to me?”

“Oh yes, I guess I did,” he said, blinking a few times like he’d just realised it himself.

Darcy didn’t know what to say to that. It was a crazy, stupid idea.

“Think about it though,” he continued thoughtfully. “We get married, there’s paperwork, there’s a public record, a paper trail. It would be incredibly suspicious if you disappeared from one second to another.” He thought for a moment. “And we can make sure that the knowledge receives a maximum audience.”

“How?”

“There’s always some sort of talk about my love life at SHIELD, right?”

Darcy huffed out a laugh. Just six days ago she’d thought about the SHIELD rumour mill and what it would conjure next. It felt like a lifetime ago. “You bet your sweet ass there was. Everybody wanted to take a bite out of that Capsicle. Half of SHIELD was ready to date you. Even the married ones.”

“So,” Steve stated, “we get married and file all the paperwork with SHIELD. Half of the DC office will know by the end of the day; you’ll be infamous. It would be highly suspicious if something were to happen to you.”

“But what do we do once this is all over?”

“Marriages fail all the time. We get divorced, get it annulled, whatever. No hard feelings.”

Darcy stared at him for a moment. He was actually serious about his suggestion of marriage. And he seemed completely alright with divorce, as well. It was ludicrous though, she couldn’t marry Captain America on a whim, just for protection, and then have a quickie divorce. He was supposed to marry for love someday, find his forever person, not get hitched to a newbie agent on a botched mission.

“Thanks for the offer,” she finally said. “But no thanks.”

He shrugged. “Your decision.”

Darcy frowned at him for a moment. “You’re remarkably nonchalant about this. This is marriage we’re talking about. For most people it’s until death do you part.”

“In this case it’s a means to an end.”

Darcy squinted at him for a moment but decided not to press the issue any further. “So, what do we do next?” she said instead. “Fire up the laptop to look at the data?”

“We have to move,” Steve said. “We can’t stay here.”

“Why?” Darcy hadn’t meant it to sound so petulant.

“I don’t know if we were followed. I couldn’t really make sure… and like you said: London CCTV makes it easy to track our movements. That’s probably how they found us in the first place.”

“Okay,” Darcy got up with a wince and a groan, “let’s pack our bags and go.”

~*~

“Agent Lewis, a word?”

Darcy spins around in her office chair to find Assistant Director Hill standing in her cube. Darcy stares at the woman for a moment before she can gather her bearings. She silently asks herself if she will ever become accustomed to meeting important SHIELD personnel.

“Sure,” Darcy manages to say.

“Any personal effects here in your cube, Agent?” Hill asks.

Darcy shakes her head.

“Then grab your bag and jacket and let’s go.”

Darcy follows Hill wordlessly for a few minutes before curiosity gets the better of her. “Aren’t you a little too overqualified to take care of me?” she asks.

Hill looks at her. “You are, by extension, now Avengers business, whether you like it or not,” she explains patiently. “So no, I’m not too overqualified to take care of you.”

“Where are you taking me?” Darcy asks after a few more minutes. She notices that they are close to Steve’s office and asks herself if there’s something Hill needs to discuss with both of them.

“Just one more moment,” Hill says and leads Darcy into an empty office down the hallway. “This is your new office,” she announces. “Make yourself at home. We’re transferring you out of the data analysis pool to a dedicated task force that’s tracking international arms dealers.”

“What?”

“Internal transfer, Agent Lewis. We’re assigning you to a new job.”

Once again Darcy stares blankly at her. “Am I receiving this job solely because I’m Captain America’s wife?” she asks suspiciously. “Won’t this look like favouritism?”

“Do you really care?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Darcy tells her, crossing her arms and straightening her posture.

Hill looks at Darcy approvingly for a moment. “You received this job because we feel this is the best use for your abilities while you’re not cleared for field work, not because of your marriage. The data analysis wasn’t really a challenge for an agent with your abilities. Isn’t that right?”

Darcy blushes a little because that’s exactly what she thought about her job situation. Though she never mentioned anything to her boss or co-workers. She wonders if, despite all, Steve mentioned something to somebody higher up in the food chain.

“Steve didn’t mention anything,” Hill says as if she can read Darcy’s thoughts, “and doesn’t know about the transfer. You’ll have to tell him yourself. However, you should know that you’ve garnered a lot more scrutiny as a result of your… situation.”

Now Darcy is blushing in earnest and she’s asking herself if that’s a reprimand and if she, and Steve, should adjust their behaviour.

“You got the office because of your husband, though,” Hill continues lightly, “his visits to your desk have proven to be… a distraction.”

“Stop putting him in those skin-tight uniforms perfectly showcasing his butt then,” Darcy mutters.

There’s a ghost of a smile on Hill’s face for a split second, before the professional demeanour is back. “You could tell him to stay away,” she points out, “but that’s not the point. We really don’t want anything… delicate you two might discuss to be overheard by overzealous analysts. It’s easier to keep the intrusions to a minimum within your own four walls. Keep the circle small,” she advises mysteriously.

Darcy tries not to stare at her and ask her if there’s a double meaning to her words. “Do I have any saying this?” she asks instead. “What if I actually like my mindless data analysis job and my little cubicle?”

“We both know you don’t. And this is SHIELD. Our agents go where we tell them to go.”

“I still plan on returning to the field after this whole… thing is solved,” Darcy feels forced to point out. “I was in training to become a field agent. I’d like to continue that path.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, Agent Lewis. For the moment, your task is reconnaissance only. You should be back on track and cleared for field work by the time we’re ready for the actual takedown of the organisation. Then you can certainly take an active part in that.”

Darcy hums in acquiescence.

“For the time being you can be a valuable asset around here,” Hill continues. “It will obviously also increase your clearance. We have identified most of the players, we just have to track their movements, past and present, see if there are more associates, how they do their business, and shut down their whole organisation in a single stroke.”

Darcy’s ears perk up at the mention of new clearance. That might help her with tracking her and Steve’s whereabouts during their lost time. If she’s tracking international arms dealers, she might be able to do some research on the side without suspicion.

“Okay,” she says, “I’ll get right to work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the thing with the scrambled signal was stolen from Leverage :D


	10. Chapter 10

### Chapter 10

Once again, the Black Widow manages to appear right in front of Darcy when she is on her way home.

“Hello Darcy,” she says conversationally.

Darcy jumps and stares at her. “Hello-” she begins, immediately faltering because what is she supposed to call her? Ms. Black Widow? Agent Romanoff? Ms. Romanoff? How do you properly address somebody who is rumoured to know how to kill people in 127 different ways?

The Black Widow smirks as if she can read Darcy’s thoughts. “You can call me Natasha,” she offers.

Darcy narrows her eyes at her, uncertain. “Okay,” she says, feeling that is probably inoffensive enough.

“Are you not going to ask me what I’m doing here?” Natasha prompts.

“No, I actually value my life too much,” Darcy mutters. This earns her a small smile.

“How’s the husband doing?”

Darcy frowns at her for a moment. “Doing well, as far as I can tell. I haven’t seen him in a while. You’re the one who’s mostly partnered up with him on missions, I hear. Shouldn’t you know?”

It’s true. She hasn’t seen Steve in over a week, he’s always busy with something. She hasn’t even had the chance to tell him about her promotion and how she’s looking into their movements covertly now as part of her job tracking international movement.

“Is that jealousy I hear?”

“Definitely not.”

“Should I be worried about the state of your marriage?”

Darcy looks at Natasha, confused. “Um, no, we’re both on the same page on this. We’re still getting a divorce. Why are you asking? Did Steve mention something?”

“No, he didn’t.” Natasha smiles mysteriously. “But, you know… I’m invested. And I was wondering if there was ever the idea of giving this marriage a real chance.”

“Yeah, not going to happen.”

“Shame,” Natasha comments. She’s silent for a moment. “What do you consider an appropriate waiting period before you can start dating again after a divorce? Angie from Accounting would be a great match, don’t you think?”

“Um,” Darcy is not sure how to react to that. “I’m not going to discuss this with you. I think that’s Steve’s decision.”

“So you’d be okay with him going out with somebody after your marriage has been dissolved?”

“He can date somebody right now for all I care. Our marriage isn’t real.”

Natasha hums thoughtfully. “So he’s once again single and ready to mingle.”

Darcy just frowns at her, unsure where this conversation is headed. To her surprise, Natasha doesn’t say anything further, just walks next to her in silence and then fishes in her pocket for a scrunchie to put her hair up in a ponytail.

“So, the investigation into your, Steve’s and yours I mean, disappearance is apparently a hot button issue.”

“Really?” Darcy struggles to not sound too dismissive. Sometimes she wonders if there’s still an ongoing investigation.

“From what I’ve heard SHIELD is keeping a tight lid on it.”

“So tight that even I don’t know,” Darcy says irritably. “And I was involved.”

Natasha hums in understanding. “But that won’t keep you from finding out, will it?”

Darcy squints at her and decides that it’s best not to say anything. They continue walking in silence.

“Why did you do that?” Darcy asks after a moment.

“What?”

“Put your hair up,” she points out.

“Just because.”

“From what I know, the Black Widow doesn’t do things _just because_.”

Natasha smiles at her appreciatively and Darcy feels like she just passed an important test. “As a matter of fact, I do,” she says patiently, “but you’re right, this one wasn’t an empty gesture.”

“And?” Darcy prompts, curious.

“There’s a bug killer in the scrunchie that gets activated when I twist it.”

“Why would you need that?”

“Because sometimes you want to make sure that nobody overhears what you’re saying.”

Darcy doesn’t know what to answer to that. Maybe this is all a set-up? To test her loyalty? Maybe SHIELD got wind that she had started to actively distrust them and was now sending the Black Widow to find out? She decides it’s best to keep quiet.

“Pepper gave it to me. Originally, Tony developed it for her to protect corporate secrets.”

“Oh, yes, that seems like something he would do,” Darcy says non-committally.

Natasha eyes Darcy, probably sensing her hesitation. “See,” she then says conversationally, “I have this safe house in Luxembourg and it has been ransacked.”

Darcy frowns at her, briefly thrown by the change in topic. “And?”

“Luxembourg is a nice driving distance from Frankfurt, come to think of it. And Steve knows about it. That it exists and that it’s safe and off the radar.”

“I’m pretty sure SHIELD already looked into that.”

Natasha shakes her head. “No, SHIELD doesn’t know. It’s from… back in the day.”

Darcy lifts her eyebrows in surprise. “So you think we should check out if we might’ve used part of your old safety net? From your days as a Russian operative?”

“From the days when I was an independent contractor,” Natasha corrects her with a small smile.

Darcy looks at her suspiciously. She isn’t entirely sure if this isn’t a test after all. “Why are you doing this?” she asks. “Shouldn’t you give this knowledge to SHIELD? They have an official investigation going on after all. Hot button issue, as you mentioned.”

“See, SHIELD doesn’t know about my… safety net from back in the day and I prefer keep it that way. Also: I care about Steve, so… I think it’s best to give the info directly to him. Or his lovely wife for that matter. I trust you can keep a secret?”

Darcy considers for a moment to say no but then… even if it’s just a stupid test and will be another dead end, it’s the best lead she has right now.

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ll give you the names on the passports that went missing. That should move things along.” Natasha opens her ponytail and puts the scrunchie, together with a thumb drive she must’ve summoned out of thin air, into Darcy’s hand. “I trust you’ll do the right thing.”

~*~

As soon as they were checked in at a new hotel in a completely different part of London under new aliases, Darcy started decrypting the files she’d stolen and uploaded them to a secure server. It didn’t take her more than 10 minutes. Then she slid the laptop over to Steve.

“You’re the financial genius. You figure it out.”

He took the computer wordlessly and examined the data for a long time. Steve could tell that Darcy was growing itchy and impatient.

He finally looked up and grimaced at her. “There isn’t much here that’ll help us along.”

“Shit.”

“Like I said,” Steve shrugged, “Kiesewetter – or the people that employed him – didn’t do anything incredibly obvious. I’d guess it’s money laundering and financing international terrorism. Basically what SHIELD originally sent you to find out.”

“You sure?” Darcy asked.

“Not at all. There’s a lot of shady stuff you can do on financial markets. And I’m by no means an expert on white collar crime.”

“Shit.”

“There’s definitely something illegal going on.” Steve slid the laptop back over to Darcy, who just took a cursory glance and it and then looked back to him questioningly. “All the derivatives he traded expire the same day: Tuesday next week. And as far as I could tell, all the money comes from numbered accounts from a bank on – you’re gonna laugh – the Cayman Islands.”

Darcy managed a weak smile. “Yeah, that’s pretty clichéd. But is it another lead?” She looked at him hopefully.

“I have to be honest with you: maybe. There’s a reason why people use offshore financial centres. It’s not just low taxes and regulation, it’s also discretion.”

Darcy sighed and sagged into her chair. “So less chances to find the big bad.”

“We should still pursue it,” Steve suggested. “It’s our best bet.”

“Because it’s our only bet.”

“Finding out could blow this thing wide open though,” Steve tried to cheer her up. “We figure out who’s behind it and their plan.”

“But now we also have a time crunch. You said the things are going to expire next week?”

“Yup,” Steve nodded, “futures contracts, forwards and European options.”

Darcy huffed out a laugh and shook her head. “I’ll have to take your word for it. So, next stop: Cayman Islands?”

“I guess so. There’s just one thing,” Steve added, “we’re running low on funds. The money we have left might get us to the Caymans, but it won’t leave us with much wiggle room. It doesn’t factor in additional expenses we might have.”

Darcy visibly perked up at that.

“Also,” Steve added, “we have no source of income. Natasha’s money is all we’ve got.”

“I might have an idea,” Darcy said instantly, causing Steve to look at her suspiciously. “It will get us money. And it will make SHIELD extra furious, so win-win.”

Steve frowned at her. “What is it?”

“We can tap into SHIELD’s dark money pool.”

Now it was Steve’s turn to looked at her questioningly.

“Have you ever heard of civil forfeiture?” Darcy asked. “The pool is funded basically from that but, you know, organised by SHIELD. They take everything, they can seize people’s property without having to convict them of any crime. Originally, it was meant as an easy way to shut down major illegal operations, because you can’t operate without your assets, like drug lord’s assets, and money from blood diamonds, warlord’s funds… stuff that was used for crime, but also stuff that has nothing to do with it, everything they can _claim_ it’s been involved in a crime. And they don’t have to return it and then instead use it for dark ops.”

“How is this even legal?” Steve asked, flabbergasted. “That sounds legalised robbery by law enforcement.”

“You tell me. But who’s gonna sue them? And it’s very easy money.”

“It’s BS,” Steve said with conviction. “You can’t take stuff from people without convicting them of a crime.”

“I know,” Darcy agreed, “but there’s nothing we can do about it right now. But we can use this in our favour. We can tap the slush fund.”

“Okay,” Steve said, deciding not to press the issue of legality right now and look into it once they were back stateside, “so they won’t notice if we help ourselves to some money?”

“No, definitely not,” Darcy shook her head, “they’ll notice and they’ll hunt us down. They framed me for a crime I didn’t commit, but if we do this, it’ll give SHIELD a legitimate reason to pursue us because we stole from them.”

“Which they stole from other people,” Steve felt forced to point out.

“They still won’t like it. Especially since they don’t really like people knowing about their secret stash of money. I found out about it by… accident,” Darcy said unconvincingly.

Steve glanced at her suspiciously. “Accident… right.” He considered their options for a moment. While he hated the thought of outright stealing something, he wasn’t a stranger to compromise, to sacrificing something for the greater good. They’d compromised on far worse scenarios back in the 1940s. He would have no trouble sleeping after this. And he knew that they lacked other options.

“Okay,” he nodded firmly. “Let’s do this. How much money do you think we need?”

Surprise was visible on Darcy’s face for a second but then she caught herself. “Hard to tell.” She shrugged, trying to appear casual. “I’ve never been on a run trying to thwart a terrorist plot before. You’re the financial expert.”

“I also grew up in the era where the annual average household income was less than two thousand dollars.”

Darcy stared at him, clearly at a loss for words. “We’ll go with a mid 6-figure sum and donate the rest to some deserving charities,” she decided. She got up and searched the bag for the SHIELD laptop they’d kept.

“Good thing we kept this one, it’ll make things easier. We probably shouldn’t do this from here though,” she pointed out. “They’ll be able to track our movements even faster than normal if I use this to access their accounts.”

“We’ll do it from the airport?” Steve suggested.

“Good plan.”

“How do you plan to obscure the money trail?” Steve asked, curious. He knew that SHIELD had the ability to track money flow internationally.

“I’ll run it to a few fictitious accounts, twenty to thirty, I think. It won’t hold up forever, but it doesn’t have to.”

“True,” Steve nodded, “, we’re not holding onto the money long.”

Darcy looked at him for a moment, clearly considering if she wanted to say something or not. She bit her lip, unsure. “Okay, I have to ask,” she finally ventured, “are you really okay with us committing a major crime? This is like a heist, you know that? A cybercrime? Probably grand larceny I guess?”

Steve stared at her in disbelief. “You’re asking that now? We’ve already committed prison break, grand theft auto, and counterfeiting. We’ve used false passports. Those are all felonies. And a few hours ago, you shot a guy in the kneecaps.”

“Yeah,” Darcy said slowly, “but that was all for our protection. Now we’re really, actively breaking the law. It’ll give SHIELD the opportunity to paint us as some runaway criminal couple, like Bonnie and Clyde.”

“True, but Darcy,” Steve looked at her earnestly, “this is probably not the last illegal thing we’re going to do. If you have a problem with that, we should discuss this.”

“No, I don’t!” Darcy declared. “I mean, I don’t have a problem with that. I’m just surprised that you’re so…” She stopped for a moment, looking for the right word. “You’re so cavalier about it.”

“You can’t make an omelette without breaking any eggs,” Steve simply told her, not wanting to get into a discussion of morality. Darcy stared at him for that. “Darcy, I still know the difference between right and wrong, but, sometimes, you have to compromise. I wouldn’t be good at my job if I didn’t accept that.”

“Okay,” Darcy said, “okay. Yeah… good. I’m glad we’re on the same page then.”

“Good.”

“Can you check for flights to the Caribbean?” she asked, changing the topic. “I kind of want to get out of here as fast as possible.”

“Sure.”

She returned to packing. “Maybe we really should get married,” Darcy said almost absentmindedly, placing the laptop in her bag, “then we’d enjoy spousal privilege.”

Steve squinted at her for a moment, but she didn’t turn around so he couldn’t actually see her expression. “That’s a good point,” he then conceded, “but we could probably also both plead the Fifth.”

“True,” Darcy nodded, “yeah, this whole marriage thing is kind of over the top. It’s a crazy, stupid idea.”

“No, it’s not,” Steve objected. “It’s a contract that provides you with certain privileges, which you can… exploit.”

Darcy turned around at that, raising an eyebrow. “Geez, don’t get all romantic on me, Cap.”

He shrugged. “We can still get married, if you’re up for it. We’re in this together, you and I. Like I said, it has its advantages: the paper trail, spousal privilege, safety, security.”

“Also: tax breaks,” Darcy chimed in.

Steve actually snorted at that. “Yeah, sure, the tax breaks.”

“And pissing off Fox News when they find out that Captain America got married and had a quickie divorce.”

“Now you’re just making stuff up.”

Darcy grinned for a moment. “I understand what you’re getting at,” she said, serious once more. “Marriage has its advantages. I’m definitely the weak link here and with the paper trail they no longer can make me disappear.”

Steve only nodded.

“But we’re leaving London in a few hours and getting married isn’t actually that easy – outside of Vegas that is.”

“True,” Steve conceded, “I hadn’t actually thought of that.”

“So yeah, should the opportunity arise, we could do it, but I’m not hedging my bets that we’re going to find the time to get married.”

~*~

By the time Steve returns to DC from his latest assignment, he’s exhausted. SHIELD had him go on mission after mission. Running support while the STRIKE team took down a major cocaine supplier in Columbia had been his eights in as many days.

Steve isn’t so arrogant as to think that certain assignments are beneath him, but for some jobs he’s certain that the STRIKE team could’ve handled it without him running point. Sometimes he feels as if SHIELD is just keeping him busy for the sake of being busy.

He hasn’t seen Darcy in almost two weeks. He hasn’t seen Peggy for even longer and the last time he went to see her, she’d had had a couple of very bad days where she didn’t remember much of the past decade. Her quick decline is frightening, the memory gaps so random and devastating. He thinks about his own memory gap but quickly dismisses the tangent. It’s not the same and at some point he will know what went on in those two weeks. He decides to pay Peggy a visit, now that’s he back in DC for a change, as well as get in touch with Darcy. He doesn’t know when SHIELD is going to deploy him again.

Steve is rummaging through his desk drawers looking for his keys when Darcy steps into his office.

“Hey,” she says, closing the door behind her.

Steve stares at her for a moment. “Hey,” he then simply answers.

“I haven’t seen you in the while,” Darcy says.

“Yeah, sorry, SHIELD has keep me busy with fieldwork. I’m not even sure how long I have before they deploy me again.”

“Oh,” Darcy says in a tone he can’t quite place. “So have you heard any news?”

“News?”

“I was assigned to another unit.”

“Oh, that’s great! Congrat–” he cuts himself off as he remembers that it might not actually be a good thing, considering Darcy’s last placement. “Wait – do you like it?”

“Yeah, it’s certainly more interesting… more meaningful work.”

Something in her tone makes Steve look up from his search. He sees that Darcy is twisting the hair in her ponytail nervously.

“Also, Natasha-” Darcy begins, “Natasha gave me kind of an opening.”

“An opening?” Steve repeats slowly.

“Into our case.”

“That’s great! Have you found anything?” Steve prompts when Darcy doesn’t immediately answer.

She frowns at his tone and then shakes her head. “No, not yet.”

“So what’s the update then? That you might have a new lead?” Steve says, internally wincing at how impatient he sounds.

“Yes.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“Well,” she begins slowly, squinting at him. “I just thought I’d keep you in the loop. Since you’re not actively doing anything about our situation.”

Darcy’s accusatory tone causes Steve to squint at her in return. “We agreed that I wouldn’t be much help right now”

“Yeah, but it would’ve been nice for you to be here. To be around.”

“SHIELD had me on missions, Darcy. They needed me in the field,” Steve feels forced to point out.

Darcy huffs out a short, derisive laugh. “Did they really? Or were you just happy to be welcomed back into the fold?”

“What?” Steve snaps.

“I mean, you seem happy, totally content with the situation. I get it,” Darcy responds, sounding strangely hollow.

Steve narrows his eyes at her, again. “Get what?”

“That you’re content with never finding out.”

Steve stares at her in disbelief. “I am not and you know it.”

“So you honestly don’t remember anything?” Darcy asks, accusingly.

Steve frowns at her. “No, and if I did, you would be the first to know.”

“Okay,” Darcy says, “okay, just checking. I don’t remember anything either, so-” she breaks off and shrugs, shoulders still tense.

“And like I said,” Steve says slowly. “If I did, you’d be the first to know.”

“Okay,” Darcy says curtly.

Steve takes a deep breath, unsure how to placate her. “Can we please do this another time?”

“Do what?” Darcy challenges.

“You’re obviously upset and I’m tired and really not in the mood to discuss this right now.”

“Not in the mood?” Darcy repeats. Her voice sounds a little strangled.

“I’m sure this can wait a few hours. I need to run, I have stuff to do in the city.”

“It could,” Darcy begins slowly, “but then you said yourself that you don’t know when SHIELD is going to deploy you again, so maybe we should take the time to discuss this now.”

Steve crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Why are you so angry about me being gone for work? I bounce back, Darcy, that’s what I do.”

“Yeah right,” Darcy snaps, crossing her own arms, mirroring his posture.

Steve studies her for a moment. “Is something else wrong? Have I given you any reason to distrust me?”

“No, you haven’t. But you’re not doing anything! You’re so unfazed!” she says, exasperated. “And you seem so happy to head back under SHIELD’s command. Something is seriously rotten here, but you don’t question it!”

Steve takes a deep breath. “If you seriously think that, you don’t know me at all.”

“How am I supposed to _get_ to know you if you’re gone all the time?” Darcy throws her hands up in frustration.

“Like I said: I’m working,” Steve says, trying to remain calm. “People need me.”

“You’re so glad to be back here,” Darcy continues, her voice rising, “you’ll have no problems with the divorce. But I’ll always be known as your ex-wife and I’ll never find out what happened to me!”

“Do you honestly think I’d be alright with never knowing?” Steve’s asks in disbelief and then grits his teeth. “I’m sorry if I seem unfazed but I woke up 70 years in the future already. And you’re mistaken if you think I’m okay with losing another two weeks where I was alive and kicking and don’t remember what I did.”

Darcy juts out her chin defiantly. “Well, you’ve done pretty well without knowing what happened to you. I’m the only one pushing the investigation. You seem to be okay with a few memory gaps.”

“How dare you,” Steve hisses. “Memory gaps are _nothing_ I take lightly. Peggy has Alzheimer’s and only recognises me on her good days. I will never be content with not knowing.”

Darcy visibly recoils at his words.

“How do I know that I can trust you?” Steve continues, his voice low and dangerous. “You’re the one that said that playing pretend, subterfuge come naturally to you. I woke up with you as my wife and you claimed to know nothing. Maybe this is all a bigger ploy and you’re part of it.”

“Excuse me? It’s more like I should distrust you,” Darcy counters, her eyes flashing. “You’re the one that’s crawling back into SHIELD’s open arms, that turns over to have his belly scratched. You could use your status within SHIELD to find stuff out instead of jetting around the world. But you haven’t developed any leads. All the research comes from me.”

“Research? Right, _research_ ,” Steve says derisively. “You just come to me and tell me things you claim you found out. Where do you get this stuff? Maybe it’s just a ploy to gain my trust.”

“And what would that trust buy me?” Darcy challenges, her hands balled into fists now. “Nothing. You’re just gone, falling back in line once again, following orders. Or maybe you remember and don’t tell me. Thanks to the regenerative functions of the serum, you’re far more likely to get your memories back.”

“Oh yeah?” Steve hisses, “while we’re apparently letting out all unfounded accusations: How do I know that you’re not complicit? Embroiled in it all. You still haven’t told me how you knew about the bugs in my apartment. And maybe you come up with all these conspiracy theories to keep me at bay. We know nothing about each other, we’re strangers. Why should I trust you? Just because of a ring on my finger?”

Darcy looks defiant at his accusations, taking a deep breath to undoubtedly retort. That’s the moment when Natasha opens the door and steps inside. She looks between the two of them, her eyebrows rising almost to her hairline.

“Mission,” she then simply announces, “suit up, Steve, we need you. Wheels up in 10. Darcy, don’t expect the hubby home for dinner.” Natasha slips away and leaves them alone once more.

Darcy’s stares at him, her eyes flashing, her nostrils flared. “So,” she says acerbically, “once again an important mission for Captain America so he doesn’t have to think about what awaits him at home.”

Steve narrows her eyes at her. “I have nothing to say to you. I have to leave; people need me.”

“Yeah, do what you do best. Save the world, be the sacrificial lamb, work for SHIELD, do shady, barely legal operations. I’ll just keep doing what I’ll always do, actually trying to figure out what happened. We’ll see if I’m still here when you return.”

“You can do whatever you like, my dear wife,” Steve retorts bitingly, walking past her toward the door, “you’re not beholden to me. We’re only waiting for the divorce papers after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Civil Asset Forfeiture: see Chapter 7 and yes, I'm mentioning this twice to drive the issue home ;-) That being said, since I posted chapter 7, there were three more developments:  
> [Civil Asset Forfeiture: Forfeiting Your Rights (SPLC)](https://www.splcenter.org/20180116/civil-asset-forfeiture-forfeiting-your-rights)  
> [Alabama lawmakers propose ending civil asset forfeiture by police](http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/01/alabama_lawmakers_introduce_bi.html) and [this is the reaction from the police](http://reason.com/blog/2018/02/13/alabama-cops-threaten-more-prosecutions)


	11. Chapter 11

### Chapter 11

Darcy regrets her words almost as soon as they leave her mouth, but Steve’s already gone; she has no chance to apologise, no chance for closure, no chance to move on from their fight. She desperately needs to talk to him. And even though the questions about the how, the why and the when of their two-week adventure still bother her, maybe bother her even more, she’s not in the mood to research it on her own. Not while her relationship with Steve is up in limbo.

Darcy is sitting alone in the cafeteria, playing idly with her food, when Clint finds her the next day. He sits down next to her.

“Marital dispute?” he asks.

Darcy’s head shoots up. “How did you know?”

“You seem to be in a funk and you know…” he shrugs. “I mean, it could’ve been that cliffhanger on Dog Cops last night, but… you’ve been taking everything in stride and far too well so far, so at some point it might have blown over. Also, I figured that Steve is the only one to get your panties in a twist.”

“Natasha told you, didn’t she?”

“I’m perfectly capable to make my own observations,” Clint protests with a grin. “I thought that the newlyweds probably had their first fight and now don’t know how to deal.”

“And now you’re trying to mend things?” Darcy asks, eyebrows raised in question.

“Hell no, not really my area. You have your friends to talk about feelings and all that. I just wanted to ask if you wanted to shoot stuff?”

They make their way to the shooting range, find two empty booths at the end and start shooting. At some point, after firing round nine dead center into the paper target, Darcy begins to relax. Clint stands next to her as she finishes her last round and then disassembles the gun with practiced ease.

He whistles appreciatively when he sees her paper target. “Wow, I mean, I saw those marksmanship scores in your files, but damn girl, you’re good. No wonder Steve married you. Sharp shooting brunettes are kind of his type.”

Darcy sighs. “If only it were that easy,” she confesses. “I mean, honestly, that’s the thing that bugs me the most: Why did I marry him?”

“Love is out of the question, huh? He didn’t just sweep you off your feet?”

“We both agreed that we really are not the type… Not the type of people for the whirlwind romance. We knew each other for barely a week, so it’s unlikely that we just decided ‘Let’s elope, make it official and spend the rest of our life together.’”

“But?” Clint presses, clearly aware that it’s not the only thing that’s bugging Darcy.

“What if we did? I mean, I have the suspicion that we crisscrossed the world on some sort of mission and I will probably be able to find out what we did when and why, from a logical standpoint, but this whole marriage thing is such a curveball.” It feels good letting this all out for a moment. Clint, surprisingly, doesn’t make any wiseass remarks, just listens patiently. “Did we have feelings for each other we can’t remember?” Darcy continues. “Did we have the once in a lifetime love affair to end all love affairs and now we’re back to being strangers that tiptoe around each other? That thought is so devastating.”

“If it goes against both your characters, I would, for now, treat it without the love aspect,” Clint suggests reasonably. “Just think about it from a mission standpoint.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about this way: What would a marriage do, while you were crisscrossing the world, that could not have been achieved by any other means?”

Darcy shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know.”

“I mean, you guys were probably undercover and on the run,” Clint points out.

“But then, why would we get married and make it official? We could easily have used the cover identities. I know we had them. Non-SHIELD ones too.”

“Maybe you were actually under pressure?”

“Again: We could’ve used fake identities.”

“That’s true,” Clint agrees. “I’ve been fake married on SHIELD orders a few times already. None of it was real. Either SHIELD procured the paperwork or if we had to do it in the field, it was always under an alias.”

“Exactly,” Darcy nods. “Fake is basically the operative word here, is the operative word in most undercover missions. So what would make me, Darcy Lewis, officially marry Steven Grant Rogers. Why did we do it?”

Clint thinks for a moment but cannot come up with another explanation.

“The more I’m running out of logical explanations,” Darcy continues, “the more I’m afraid that there were actual feelings involved and that the husband I loved is now a stranger. A stranger that doesn’t seem to care. A stranger I just yelled the most horrible things at.”

“He’ll be back and then you can apologise,” Clint tells her. “And Steve really isn’t… an uncaring douchebag. He just rolls with the punches so he can appear unfazed. I’m convinced that at some point you’ll find out what happened to you. It’s just a matter of time.”

Darcy sighs deeply. “Do you have memory lapses from your time under-” she cuts herself off, immediately regretting her question when she sees Clint’s pained expression. Maybe she should really keep her mouth shut for a while.

Clint laughs humourlessly. “I wish. But no, it took a few hours after Nat’s recalibration before I remembered everything with disgusting clarity. Loki’s final gift for me.”

“Did you ever talk to a therapist?” Darcy asks.

“SHIELD mandated it. And it helped. But yeah, sometimes, most of the time, I really wish I didn’t remember.”

“So sometimes ignorance really is bliss.”

“Yup. But I’m pretty sure it was different with you and Steve. You probably have nothing to regret,” Clint states with too much fake bravado, clearly trying to cheer her up.

“I don’t know… I’ve read all these stories… and Jane mentioned something about your brain protecting you from yourself, from trauma…”

“You and Steve having the same experience makes that highly unlikely,” Clint points out.

“Yeah… but still. What if we did something horrible?”

“Then you’ll deal with it. I know that I said that I wouldn’t meddle into yours and Steve’s relationship, but wait for him to return, apologise, amend things and then, whatever you find out, at least you won’t be alone for the fallout.”

~*~

It was strange, Darcy thought, how relaxed she was. Three days ago, the idea of travelling with fake passports, stolen cash, and spy equipment had made her panicky, now it was just another thing she did. It paled in comparison to having shot a guy in the kneecaps yesterday.

And earnestly contemplating marriage to Captain America.

Everything moved at such a breakneck speed that she would probably get whiplash once they were caught or inevitably had to stop. That was, if she didn’t black out from exhaustion before that.

They made it through airport security at Heathrow without a hitch and then found a spot where Darcy could set up the laptop to relieve SHIELD of roughly half a million dollars. They had 30 minutes before their flight was scheduled to leave.

While Darcy was busy on the laptop, Steve sat next to her, surveying the area. They’d gone for the business travel look this time around, so while Darcy typed on the laptop in front of her, Steve was pretending to be interested in his phone. For all intents and purposes they looked even more like normal people travelling than the two days ago on their ferry trip to Dover.

They hadn’t managed to find a direct flight to the Cayman Islands and most of the connecting flights stopped at some airport in the US, so for the lack of alternatives they were now only travelling to Jamaica. Steve had mentioned something about maybe travelling by boat, but in the rush to leave London, they hadn’t made any actual plans yet.

Since she wasn’t trying to obscure her identity or her location, it took Darcy less than 10 minutes to gain access to the accounts SHIELD hid a portion of their dark money on. She then transferred the money onto a dummy account and from there on funnelled it through two dozen fictitious accounts before finally transferring it into a numbered account with the same bank on the Cayman Islands that they about to investigate in person. It would give them easy access to the bank on the island where they could transfer the money to a Swiss bank account without much of a paper trail which would make it almost impossible for SHIELD to track.

“Done,” Darcy simply said quietly once she was finished. Steve looked up and nodded at her curtly. Darcy closed the laptop, placed it in its bag and then, when she and Steve got up to catch their flight, left it under the table.

Security rushed past them towards their vacated table, but Steve and Darcy just kept walking. They weren’t stopped, muss less recognised. They boarded their plane and had an uneventful journey towards Kingston Airport.

When they arrived, they found out that they’d missed the first flight to Grand Cayman by a few minutes and that the second was fully booked. They went in search of a travel agency that might help them out.

“There are no flights left for today,” the travel agent told Darcy.

“Dammit.” Next to her, Steve swore quietly and the travel agent looked at him for a moment and then back at her computer.

“But,” she continued, “you can take the water way, if you’re up for it. There’s a cruise ship leaving today that’ll arrive on Grand Cayman tomorrow. Depending on how spontaneous you are, you can also travel further to Cuba and Mexico.”

Darcy looked at Steve questioningly. “We could take the ship,” she said quietly. “We’ll arrive around the same time.”

“And we’ll have a ready way off the island,” Steve whispered. “We could disappear into the crowd, be like all the other tourists.”

“So we’re doing it?” Darcy confirmed.

Steve nodded. “Yup, let’s do it.”

The booking was painless and half an hour later they were in a taxi on the way to the harbour. They stood in line waiting to check in, being one of the last groups of people to make it onto the ship. Steve handed over their passports to the waiting crewmember, who greeted them with a bright smile.

“Welcome aboard, Mr. Turn-” he stopped mid-sentence and stared at Steve.

Then he shook his head almost imperceptibly. He looked down at the passport in his hands, his eyes growing wide, and back up at Steve.

“I’m sorry, this is going to sound weird, but you-” he began and then stopped himself. “I’m pretty sure you hear this all the time…”

Darcy looked at him in confusion for a few seconds before she realised that the worst had happened: He had recognised Steve, based on the passport picture. On their fake documents Steve still looked a lot more like Captain America because they’d taken them before Darcy had shorn his hair and he’d started growing out his beard.

“You’re Captain America, aren’t you?”

Darcy realised in horror that there was a fraction of a second at most to save the situation, to play it all down, pretending to laugh, saying that they got the wrong guy and then saying that this happened _all the time_. Both she and Steve weren’t fast enough.

Steve sucked in a surprised breath and then ducked his head. “Um,” he began.

The guy’s eyes widened even further. “Oh my god, it’s really you. Oh my god-”

“Please,” Darcy stepped in, trying to shush him, “we’re trying not to be spotted.”

“Of course,” the guy – his name tag identified him as Gordon – said in a high-pitched voice, “of course, I understand. Hence the fake name and all that.” He nodded to himself. “Of course.”

They stood together awkwardly for a moment, no one really sure what to say. Tension was radiating off Steve in spades.

“It’s such an honour,” Gordon finally began again. “My grandfather served in the 9th infantry division during the war. First in Italy and then in France. Such an honour.”

“Thanks,” Steve said uncomfortably, clearly at a loss what to say further. Darcy involuntarily asked herself how he usually reacted when he met fans. He’d told her that he seldom got spotted, so he clearly hadn’t developed any form of defense for the situation.

Gordon looked between the two of them, clearly waiting for more of a conversation. “And this lovely lady is?” he then prompted.

“I’m his fiancée,” Darcy stepped in before Steve could say anything. “Darcy Lewis.”

Gordon squealed a little in delight. “Congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Darcy said.

“It really is such an honour,” Gordon repeated. “It’s so great to meet you.”

“Please, Gordon,” Darcy began, “it would be great if you could keep this to yourself. We really don’t want the extra attention.”

“Of course! Of course! I understand. My lips are sealed,” he made the sealing motion with his fingers and winked at her.

“Thanks,” Steve said, clearly relieved.

“I’m going to accompany you to your room personally,” Gordon announced.

“Please, that’s not necessary,” Darcy tried.

“Miss Lewis, Captain, I’d be my pleasure,” he said, gathering their luggage and moving down the hallway.

Darcy looked up a Steve and just shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “You okay?” she asked Steve quietly. “You seem really uncomfortable.”

“I _am_ incredibly uncomfortable,” Steve shot back.

“We just have to make it to our room without incident,” Darcy said. “And then he’ll hopefully leave us alone.”

“And not tell anybody,” Steve added darkly. “If he blows our cover and somebody gets wind of this, we’re stuck here, we can’t leave the ship until tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Darcy nodded to herself, “we’ll just have to be extra cautious then. We’ll just play along.”

She grabbed his hand because she figured casually holding hands was what engaged people did and they trotted after Gordon.

Gordon happily chatted away while Darcy and Steve followed him to their room. “Can I just say,” he then said. “I’m so glad that you found somebody, Captain. So happy!”

“Thank you,” Steve said tersely.

“This is so romantic,” Gordon continued, unaware of the tension radiating from both Darcy and Steve. “And you’re spending Valentine’s day together in the Caribbean.”

“We’re trying to keep this to ourselves,” Darcy felt forced to point out. “Nobody really knows we’re here.”

He stared at her for a long moment. “You’re eloping?” he asked. “How romantic!”

“Not eloping,” Darcy disagreed, “we don’t really have any plans to get married.”

“But you could!” Gordon stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at them. “You could get married here!”

Steve and Darcy were shocked to silence for a second.

“We couldn’t possibly-” Darcy then began, “that would be too much.”

“It’s not too much!” Gordon objected, moving once more further down the hallway towards their room. “We do this regularly. You wouldn’t believe how many weddings we perform every month. Really, we are quite good at it. And now around Valentine’s Day we have an officiant on board. And of course, we try to make it as painless for the happy couple as possible.”

“No really, it’s- we shouldn’t,” Darcy stumbled over her words. “We won’t-”

“Darcy honey,” Steve spoke up next to her, squeezing her hand tightly. “Maybe we should consider it.”

Darcy stared at him in shock and was about to say something when they arrived at their room.

Gordon looked at them expectantly, clearly expecting a decision. “Thanks,” Darcy managed to say before pointing between Steve and her. “We’ll obviously discuss this.”

Gordon smiled brightly. “Please do. And really, should you decide to do it, let me know. I can arrange everything. And discretion is my middle name.”

Once they’d closed the door behind them, Darcy glared at Steve. “What do you mean, ‘consider it’?”

“I mean it’s a great opportunity. We’ve discussed this,” Steve pointed out calmly. He seemed to be his unflappable self once more.

“But more in abstract terms,” Darcy countered. “Not for real…”

“Then why did you introduce yourself as my fiancée?” Steve wanted to know.

“Because it seemed like the right thing to say. Captain America on a secret romantic holiday with a girlfriend seemed… strange.”

Steve stared at her with both eyebrows raised.

“It seemed too casual for Captain America,” Darcy explained.

“Okay,” Steve just said, “that’s kind of ridiculous.”

“I’m realising that too now that I’ve said it out loud.”

Steve shrugged. “I’m not going to force you to do this. You know the advantages. This is probably as painless as it’s going to get. And it’s not like we can appear at a courthouse somewhere.”

“True,” Darcy conceded.

“And if Gordon blows our cover and we end up getting caught, at least I won’t be forced to testify against you.” Steve grinned.

“Yeah,” Darcy said pensively, “all good points. He already knows who we are and he’s hopefully discrete,” she said more to herself.

“And he said it was easy.”

“A better opportunity probably won’t come around.”

“True…” Steve nodded, “so we’re doing this?”

She nodded. “Yeah, let’s do this.”

~*~

Steve is glad to have had the mission as a distraction. This time, the operation actually required all of his attention. He’s on his way back after three days of gruelling field work in South Eastern Europe, when he finally has time to think about what happened before SHIELD sent him out. He regrets his words, it was wrong of him to accuse her, but the weirdest thing was how their conversation had spiralled out of control so quickly. He wonders for a brief moment if Darcy had confronted him, just looking for a fight, but then… she probably was just frustrated and he actually understood why. She did all the heavy lifting, had nothing to take her mind off the damn thing, was more negatively affected by the entire situation than he was, and he just wasn’t there.

At that moment Natasha sits down next to him. “So,” she begins, “we were all wondering-”

“Don’t-”

“When you were going to get rid of the beard.”

Natasha smiles at him way too innocently, knowing full well that Steve hadn’t expected that.

He frowns at her. “Is there a pool or something?”

“Knowing SHIELD there probably is. That’s not why I’m asking though. I’m just wondering if there’s a deeper meaning to the beard. Adjusting to new circumstances and you’ll shave once the situation feels normal again? Or are you just compensating for the lack of hair on your head?”

Steve scratches his beard thoughtfully. “Just trying out something new I guess.”

“Steve, that’s basically been your life motto for the last two years.”

“Yeah, I know, but this is different…” Steve trails off for a moment.

“You wanna talk about it?” Natasha asks. “About your marriage? And your big fight?”

Steve looks meaningfully at the STRIKE team nearby. “Not really, no.”

Natasha procures a little black object barely the size of her little finger out of her pockets and pushes a button on it. “You may speak freely now.”

“You know, one of these days, you’ll have to tell me where you get those little gadgets.”

“I ask Pepper. And Pepper tells Tony.”

Steve stares at her in surprise.

“What? Why the surprise? I was undercover as her assistant for a while. We actually like each other.”

“Oh right.”

“It’s still a very solid cover. Natalie Rushman has accrued a lot of PTO and overtime and she only needs a few more months of employment until she’ll start to earn stock options.”

“So you get Pepper to talk to Tony about developing stuff. That’s actually genius. Talking to Tony…”

“Can be all kinds of exhausting?” Natasha prompts.

“That’s one way to put it.”

“Get Darcy to do it. Pepper says that Tony will like her and is eager to meet her.”

Steve is silent for a moment and Natasha looks at him expectantly. He’s a little unnerved by that. He’s grown used to Natasha’s constant pestering. This silent treatment is new.

“Did you know?” Steve asks because that’s been bugging him for a while.

She frowns at him in earnest confusion. “What?”

“Did you know that there was something going on? Did you suspect anything? You made me partner with a junior agent and you see how we ended up. That’s a weird coincidence.”

“No,” Natasha says quietly, “I didn’t suspect anything. I just wanted Darcy to have a friendly face on her first mission.”

“Why were you concerned? You don’t- didn’t even know her. Personally, I mean.”

Natasha shrugs. “Us women have to stick together. And she seems nice and Thor loves her.”

“So you didn’t think that Darcy was in danger somehow and sent me to protect her?”

“No, and if I had I would’ve told you.”

Steve looks at her doubtfully and Natasha fixes him with an almost exasperated look. “Seriously, I would have. You don’t send a co-worker into that thing without all the information. Why would I ask you to protect her without telling you what to protect her from? I would never do that. I might’ve been a little worried about her, she is after all not your usual SHIELD trainee, not with her connections, but you’ve seen her scores and seen her in action even though that you can’t remember; she’s talented. So no, I didn’t foresee any dangers or that you would end up like this. I mean I’m _thrilled_ that you’ve finally settled down-”

“Were you matchmaking?” Steve interrupts Natasha’s obvious dig at his private life.

“A little.” Nat grins. “She is, after all, competent, sassy, and nice. And used to be unmarried.”

“Why are you helping out now? Darcy said you provided information.”

“I needed to get the information first,” Natasha explains. “You know that most of my… infrastructure is off the books. With Captain America’s disappearance, I felt that there was a certain amount of added scrutiny for a while that I wanted to avoid. So I needed time to find out. I couldn’t just rush in. I mean, I like my official, government-sanctioned status at SHIELD, but certain things from my past are better kept quiet.”

“It makes you look suspicious.”

Natasha stares at him a little. “Wow, you’re paranoid, Steve.”

“Yeah, I am.”

She looks at him appraisingly for a moment. “Jaded is not a good look on you.”

“Not jaded, just… desperate to find out I guess.”

“Well, I’m the wrong person to talk to about that. You should tell Darcy. Once you’ve made up, of course.”

Steve sighs. “And now you’ve masterfully directed our conversation towards the topic you wanted to talk about to begin with.”

“Only if you’re ready to talk about it.”

“I don’t really want to? Need to?” Steve grimaces. “I mean, yes, Darcy went too far. Yes, a little thing somehow blew up into a big argument when it shouldn’t have. Yes, we accused each other of pretty horrible things, but I can understand that she was frustrated and feeling ignored. It’s both our faults. She didn’t have the luxury of work taking her mind off things. I was just gone all the time and I might have appeared too dismissive. So, I’ll try to find her once I’m back home and tell her that and I hope it’ll be alright.”

Natasha looks at him in surprise. “Wow, you’re… you could actually be quite good at this whole marriage thing.”

Steve huffs humourlessly. “I doubt it. But we’ll figure it out, eventually. I think it’s easier for us right now because there are fewer emotions, like love, involved? We basically have a common goal. And it helps when you know that it’s not forever.”

“You sure? You could make it work.”

“I don’t think so. Our relationship is just too… weird. I prefer the divorce.”

“That’s pretty relaxed of you.” Natasha leans back into her seat. “We kind of all thought that you’d be conservative about it… till death do you part and all that.”

“Maybe if my wedding vows had actually meant something to me, I’d put up more of a fight… but people get divorced all the time, so… That’s not what bugs me. It’s the not remembering part.”

“Human nature, human memory is… very unpredictable.”

Steve snorted. “That’s one way to put it.”

“In a way you’re lucky,” Natasha sounds surprisingly wistful. “You can be glad that you’re just missing stuff. Imagine you’d been implanted with false memories.”

Steve stares at her in silence.

“There’ve been studies,” Natasha explains, now sounding like her normal, unflappable self once more. “The human mind is surprisingly susceptible to suggestion. Our mind is a dangerous and beautiful thing.”

“Studies… right. Anything else you want to tell me about those?”

“I read somewhere that you don’t lose memories. Your brain just forgets where they’re saved and you can’t access them any longer. It’s like an island that’s on no map and the bridge is gone. You have to rebuild the bridge to find it.”

“Oh yeah? Where would you read that? National Geographic?”

“Scientific American,” Natasha deadpans.

“So, did it also say how to rebuild the bridge?”

“Emotions.”

“Emotions?” Steve repeats.

“Yeah, it’s easier when a memory is tied to a strong emotion.”

“Like love? Hate? Anger?”

“Something like that. You’ll have to figure that part out on your own. Might be affected by both what you were feeling back then and what you’re feeling right now. Or a mixture of both. Like, maybe if you were in love with Darcy and you’d fall in love with her now, once again, your memories might return to you more easily.”

Steve shakes his head. “You’re incorrigible,” he says with an eye roll.

“I’m quite serious. In any case, maybe more tangible memories will also help. I gave Darcy all I had on the passports. You should be able to track your movements soon enough. I didn’t tell her what else was taken from the safe house, just so you know. I didn’t feel it was necessary.”

“What else was missing?”

“The usual like cash, equipment, disguises, hair dye. You owe me a couple of thousand bucks by the way.”

“Oh, that’s where the money came from,” he realises.

“For a while at least. It’s not enough to sustain a two-week global adventure. But what I’m missing most desperately: All that stuff for concealed carry, especially under formal wear. I really hope you guys did something in fancy dress, Darcy especially.”

Natasha pauses and grins widely and Steve looks at her suspiciously. “Why do I have the feeling this is going to develop into another dig at my married life?”

“No, just wondering if you ever put the garter holsters and bra holsters to use. If you find out what happened to that stuff, let me know. Otherwise, I know what to get you guys for the first anniversary.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of updates, guys. The last few weeks have been a clusterfuck.

### Chapter 12

This time, Steve doesn’t run past Darcy when she’s once more waiting for him at the end of his morning run. He’d returned yesterday afternoon and first made good on his plan to visit Peggy. He had planned to go find Darcy today, but now she has pre-empted him.

“Hey,” he says quietly, standing in front of her.

“Hey,” she answers, equally quiet. She looks at him for a moment and then immediately at her feet.

“I’m-” he begins right when Darcy says, “I wanted-”

“Sorry,” Steve says, “you go first.”

“I’m so sorry,” she rushes out. “I was really out of line. Obviously, I didn’t really mean what I said.” She looks up at him and catches his gaze for a moment before looking at the ground once more.

“I said some pretty nasty things, too,” Steve says quietly. “You’re forgiven, if you want to hear that. But essentially: It’s alright. Stuff like that happens. We just have to adjust.”

Darcy is quiet for a moment and bites her lip. “And I’m really sorry about Peggy,” she adds softly. “I had no idea that Director Carter was… is suffering from Alzheimer’s. That’s horrible and I’m sorry I made you tell me. That’s terrible and-” she breaks off.

“I should never have brought that up.”

“No, no! Don’t feel bad. I mean… I’m kind of glad you shared-” She snaps her mouth shut, colours, and then takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I’m really bad at this… But we’re still trying to be friends, right? So, don’t feel sorry for telling me this. That’s what friends talk about.”

“Okay.”

“So I can totally lend a sympathetic ear. Or try at least.” She grimaces slightly.

Steve just nods curtly, not really wanting to stay on that topic. “Okay.”

They stand awkwardly next to each other for a moment, then Darcy sits down on one of the benches and Steve sits next to her.

“That your running partner?” Darcy asks a little too chipper a moment later.

“Who?” Steve asks, frowning in confusion.

“That guy just running past,” she explains, gesturing at the passing them just now.

“No, I don’t know him,” Steve says.

“Hmm, seemed like you did. He was here last time, too.”

Steve scrutinises her, but she doesn’t say anything further. They sit next to each other in silence for a while.

“The thing is,” Darcy tells him quietly, carefully, “you seem so unfazed und unaffected-”

“What?” Steve stares at her, a little stunned.

“And like you’re dealing with this just fine.”

“Darcy-” Steve begins before pausing, because he doesn’t really know how to express what he wants to say. Darcy looks up at him curiously and Steve just looks at her intently for a moment. “We’re in this together, you and I. And I mean it.” Darcy nods in understanding. “But also,” Steve continues, “for me this whole marriage thing registers a little lower on the WTF scale than it does for you. I woke up in the future once and then a few days later I was fighting honest to god alien beings in NYC. It takes a lot to faze me. And contrary to my 70-year nap, this marriage thing is reversible.”

Darcy hums in surprise. “Yeah, I get that,” she concedes.

“I really want to find out, too, Darcy,” Steve reiterates, “but I’ve learned to roll with the punches.”

“Okay.”

“So I can try to be less inscrutable, but-” Steve shrugs, “but you’ll have to forgive me if I’m not. And I might not be a… I’m not the type to just lay out my feelings in front of you on my own, but you can always ask, I guess? Then I’ll probably tell you.”

“Okay,” Darcy repeats. “I have to get back to the reversible though,” she says a few moments later.

“What do you mean?” he frowns at her.

“What if we find out stuff we don’t like and then we regret it? Regret finding out at all?”

“We won’t,” Steve says confidently.

Darcy stares into the distance. “I wouldn’t be so sure. I mean-”

“Darcy-” Steve tries to cut her off because he’s sure that they shouldn’t go down that road.

“No, let me finish. I can deal with logical choices. I can deal with things we did because we had to compromise, I mean, we’re the good guys, right? But what if-” Darcy takes a deep breath. “The feeling thing is what gets me. I don’t really care what we did, I mean, as long as I didn’t straight up murder a person, I’ll probably be fine, but… the marriage is what gets me. What if there were actual feelings involved? What do we do if we find out that we loved each other and now no longer do? That stuff isn’t reversible.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Steve says decisively.

“I’m not, but I’m just trying to be prepared. And that’s why I was so disappointed that you kept disappearing on me. I really don’t want to deal with any potential fallout alone.”

“You don’t have to,” Steve reassures her. “Like you said: We’re trying to be friends. And remember what I said when I first visited you in your apartment the day after we were released: you’re really the only person I can talk with about this. I’ll try not to be as absent in the future.”

“Okay.”

“And,” Steve adds, “if we really find out that we were actually in love, then we’ll deal with it. I mean, the past doesn’t necessarily need to define us. And feelings don’t develop in a vacuum, and it’s about the decisions we make, so…” Steve trails off.

“So you’re saying that it’s all about the circumstances?” Darcy clarifies.

“That and I know from experience: You can’t change the past.”

“Yeah, you would know,” Darcy agrees. “Sorry,” she says a second later.

“It’s alright.”

Again they sit in silence.

“So, we survived our first big marital fight,” Darcy says finally.

“I hope it’s our last. I can’t wait for the divorce,” Steve tells her honestly.

“Yeah, me too.”

“So did you find out anything further while I was gone?” he asks. “With Nat’s information?”

“I didn’t really do anything,” Darcy explains apologetically. “I wasn’t in the mood.”

“I can understand that.”

“Do you still want to go on with our investigation then?”

“Of course! I mean, the STRIKE team is alright, on missions, but it’s not as much fun as untangling international conspiracies with my wife back home.”

Darcy snorts at that. “I’ll take your word for it.”

~*~

Preparing to get married felt like preparation for any other mission, Steve decided. That was, until it came to the matter of clothing.

“Do we have anything to wear?” Darcy asked, early in the morning. Gordon had just stopped by to show them some rings and both Darcy and Steve had thankfully found each a simple gold wedding band that fit them. If Gordon had noticed the lack of engagement ring on Darcy’s finger, he hadn’t mentioned it.

Steve looked at himself and then at Darcy. “Not really,” he said. They were both wearing jeans and a short-sleeved shirt. They’d only travelled with the bare necessities they’d gotten in the UK a few days ago: jeans, shirts, jackets, underwear. They didn’t even have vacation-appropriate clothing; short, light clothes that you would wear on a Caribbean cruise. Thankfully, they didn’t have to blend in with the crowd on the ship for long.

“We did not plan for this,” Darcy decided. “Man, did we not plan for this at all.”

Steve frowned at her. “Are you alright?” he asked.

She waved off his concern. “Yeah, this just feels kind of unreal. But I’ll get over it.”

“You still okay with this?” Steve inquired.

“Yes, sure,” Darcy answered, not quite meeting his eyes. “This is a tactical thing for legal reasons. It’s not like I’d need to wear white or something.”

“When did that become a thing anyway?” Steve asked, honestly curious. “Wearing white, I mean. The women in my time got married in their Sunday best.”

“Huh,” Darcy looked up at him, “interesting, but not what I was referring to. I’m Jewish and we traditionally get married in white, no matter the trend. Jews wear white because it’s a day of spiritual renewal.”

Steve stared at her, not sure what to say. This marriage was a purely tactical thing; they’d quickly get the ceremony over with in the morning before they’d debark onto Grand Cayman, make it to the First National Bank and hopefully find out whose capital financed Kiesewetter’s money laundering operation. He had considered it so little that he’d forgotten that there were religious implications when people got married for real, for love.

“I didn’t know you were Jewish,” he said carefully. He stopped for a moment, trying to figure out what to do next. “This is just a legal thing anyway, so should you ever have a Jewish ceremony, you can wear white then?”

“It’s alright,” Darcy said, “I’ve kind of not been that religious these past years… decade. I didn’t really have much family to go to temple or celebrate with… But my mother always felt so strongly about my dress should I eventually get married, so…” Darcy shrugged and trailed off.

“Well, this isn’t a wedding, more like a… thing of convenience?” Steve pointed out. “So you can always wear white later, when it really means something?”

“Yeah, true. Not that I honestly plan on getting married again… soon at least. Hey, do you think we’ll still be friends then?” Darcy said in a very obvious attempt to lighten the mood. “What’s the etiquette on inviting ex-husbands to your second wedding?”

Steve chuckled quietly. “I wouldn’t know. But I’d be glad to come.”

“I’ll come to your second wedding, too,” Darcy promised.

They didn’t have any friends with them, so Gordon and the wedding photographer on board would be their witnesses. Gordon had assured them that the photographer was trustworthy and also had no idea who Captain America was. Like Gordon had said, there was an officiant, a middle-aged officer, on board who would perform the ceremony. Neither Darcy nor Steve had prepared any personal vows, so they’d decided to just go with whatever was the standard nondenominational ceremony and simply had to say “I do” when prompted.

The officiant, for whatever reason, took them both aside before the ceremony to talk to each of them separately. He talked to Darcy first, a conversation that didn’t seem to last longer than a minute, and he was smiling at her by the end of it. Of course Darcy would be able to charm the socks off of him, Steve thought, she was good at undercover work, at playing pretend.

Next, the officiant approached Steve. “Son,” he began, which threw Steve off for a long moment. He was sure he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “Are you sure you’re not rushing into this?”

“No, no, we want to do this,” Steve assured him, a little too quickly.

“Can I ask why the rush?” He looked at Steve expectantly. “No rings, no dress, you didn’t prepare your own vows.”

“It’s… um… it’s…” he looked over the man’s shoulder at Darcy, who was frowning at him. He was so bad at thinking on the fly when it came to cover stories. He had no problems with any of the tactical considerations of a mission, but undercover work didn’t come naturally to him at all. He had completely forgotten why people would get married, especially in this day and age. Why were he and Darcy getting married again? “It’s… um,” he stuttered and the officiant’s brow began to crease dangerously. “It’s because of the baby,” Steve rushed out.

The officiant’s face changed instantly to an expression of pure delight. “Congratulations!” he exclaimed. “That must be very exciting for you. Your fiancée hadn’t mentioned anything though.”

“Um, yeah,” Steve scratched his beard nervously, trying to figure out how to explain this to Darcy, “we’re trying to keep it quiet.”

“I couldn’t be happier for the two of you,” he said. “Now I understand.”

“Thanks.”

Steve made his way back to Darcy’s side slowly.

“What’s up?” she asked, squinting at him. Of course she already knew that something was up. While she had been out of earshot, she probably had kept a close eye on their entire exchange.

Steve took a deep breath. “If they serve celebratory champagne, please don’t have any.”

“Why?” Darcy asked suspiciously.

“I might’ve told the officiant that you were pregnant?” Steve explained in a rush.

“What?!” Darcy stared at him.

“Shh.”

“Don’t shush me, Steve. What the fuck did you do?”

“I don’t know, I panicked!”

“You panicked?” Darcy repeated, flabbergasted.

“I told you, I’m really bad at undercover work.” He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “He was asking all these questions, like he could tell that we were rushing into this, no rings, no dress, no thoughts about vows. And we’re both acting kind of stand-offish and not like a couple in love, do we? So he asked me why we were doing it. And I couldn’t really tell him the truth, couldn’t I?”

“So you said I trapped you in a marriage?”

“I didn’t say that! Just… you know… legitimizing the unborn fruit of your womb or whatever.”

Darcy closed her eyes for a second and shook her head.

“I mean, people still do that, right? Get married to not have children out of wedlock?”

Darcy took a deep breath. “While it’s not the 1960s, I assume they do, yes. Well, it’s probably something they expect from Captain America…” Darcy shook her head again. “I can’t believe I now have to fake a pregnancy.”

“Well, not for long, just until we leave. And it’s not like we will ever see him again. It’s between you, me and him,” Steve nodded his head decisively, “nobody will ever know.”

“I certainly hope so. God, this is such a mess.”

They walked towards the officiant. He smiled at them brightly. “Your fiancé just told me, Miss Lewis,” he told Darcy, “can I just say: Congratulations. I am sure you will be terrific parents.”

“Thanks,” she said with a side-glance at Steve. “I mean, I didn’t realise we were telling people yet. The 3-months rule and all. And I’m obviously not showing. At all.”

“But I am sure you can’t wait to share the happy news with the world!” he exclaimed.

Both Steve and Darcy remained silent, Steve staring at him and Darcy opting for a fake smile, that seemed to weird the officiant out a little. He stared at them confusedly for a moment.

“Okay,” he shook his head and gathered himself, “let’s get started then.”

The ceremony took less than ten minutes and Steve didn’t really hear much of it. He stared at Darcy, who stared back at him. They both said “I do” when prompted and then exchanged rings.

And then the officiant went for the customary “You may kiss the bride!”

Both Steve and Darcy froze. They had completely forgotten about that part. Darcy stared at him like completely nonplussed, probably mirroring his expression.

Darcy got onto her tiptoes, leaning in. “A kiss for good luck?” she suggested quietly. Behind them Gordon sighed loudly.

Steve just nodded, bowed down and gave her a short, chaste kiss on the lips. Their two witnesses applauded. They took care of the administrative things and then Gordon ushered them outside for the pictures. The photographer tried his best to get a good picture, but between Steve standing ramrod straight, Darcy’s fake smile being affixed to her face a little too hard and the photographer’s frown deepening by the minute, he could tell that he and Darcy weren’t really selling the part about how this was supposed to be the best day of their life. The photographer gave up after ten minutes and declared that he probably had a few good shots.

With a few more congratulations from Gordon, the newlyweds were finally left alone.

Darcy stared at Steve and then dragged her hand through her hair. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

“Yeah,” Steve replied, still a little dazed by the whole ordeal. “But it’s behind us now. So, First National Bank next?”

~*~

Somehow, even though Darcy knows that there’s a SHIELD agent next door and SHIELD bugs, whose programming has been overridden with her own experimental software, Steve’s apartment basically becomes the base of operation for their own investigation.

Steve’s place is nicer, quieter, and Steve is a better cook than Darcy could’ve ever imagined. Darcy has met Sharon pretending to be Kate twice more already and both times Sharon throws her a telling look but doesn’t actually say anything. Darcy feels a little guilty about keeping the truth from Steve. He rightfully accused her of not telling him where she got the information about the surveillance on his apartment from after all, but it’s not Darcy’s right to blow another agent’s cover, even though they’re all SHIELD employees. In her mind she keeps justifying it with the argument that she’s not blowing Sharon’s cover because it’s better to have a SHIELD agent next door whom she trusts than to have somebody there with less than honourable intentions.

It takes Darcy a few days to compile their movements. She doesn’t want to track the passports all at once, in order to avoid suspicion. Instead, Darcy hides her requests under legitimate research she does as part of her job for SHIELD.

They went from Frankfurt to Luxembourg. This much she knows from Natasha, and she already knows about their Caribbean cruise. Tracking the passports, she finds out that they then took the ferry from Calais to the UK. They moved hotels once in London. After a two-day stay, they flew out of London to Jamaica, got onto the cruise ship there and departed in Mexico. Their next stop was Panama, where they switched hotels again in the middle of the night, then Bolivia. After that their trail went cold. They rented a car, so they could have crossed the Bolivia-Brazil border by road, but there is no record that they made it to Brazil; nothing comes up at any border crossing, despite Darcy running all the aliases twice just for that. And they didn’t return the car to the rental agency.

They never used an alias twice, used different ones for flights and to check into hotels. She hasn’t gone further yet and tried to find them with facial recognition to map their movements in even more detail, because that would raise some flags at SHIELD. She considers pulling surveillance videos from the places she knows they stayed because that would be more inconspicuous. She’s at Steve’s place one weekend, contemplating doing just that and waiting to discuss it with him, when he returns from his trip to the city.

She takes a look at him. He’s pale, withdrawn, and his shoulders are sagging. “Where have you been?” Darcy asks. “You look like hell.”

Steve falls heavily onto the couch and drags one hand across his face. “Peggy’s retirement home.”

“Oh,” Darcy doesn’t know what to say for a moment. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really, no.”

Darcy scrutinises him for a second. “What do you usually do after these visits?”

Steve shrugs. “Depends on how they go. If they don’t go terrible, I’m alright. If I need to clear my head after, I run, take my bike out… Hope that SHIELD calls me in.”

Darcy hums quietly. Then she takes out her phone and checks the traffic conditions going out of the city. “Do you have an extra helmet?” she asks.

“What?”

“Grab your keys, we’re going on a little road trip.”

As much as an adrenaline junkie Steve had confessed to be, the drive out of the city towards Chesapeake Bay is uneventful. Darcy wonders if he’s adjusting his driving because he has a passenger on his bike with him.

Darcy gives directions and they stop at a beach in southern Maryland and simply stand there for a few minutes looking out at the water. It’s cold and sunny, but the breeze is actually comforting. Darcy’s hair goes flying in the wind. There are a few other people around, but not too many.

“This is actually nice,” Steve says after a while. “How do you know about this place?”

“I went to Culver. I know my way around Virginia and Maryland.”

Steve hums quietly in acknowledgement.

“So, do you think you would’ve married Peggy?” Darcy questions after a few more minutes of silence.

“Darcy-” Steve begins.

“Steve,” she cuts him off, “you should probably talk about it.”

He lets out a long sigh. “Yeah, probably… Yes, I think I would’ve asked her. And hoped that she’d say yes…”

“Do you have regrets?”

It takes him a few moments to answer. “Of course I do. But plunging the plane into the Arctic isn’t one of them. Seeing that Peggy lived her life doesn’t change that.” Steve shrugs. “I’ve come to terms with it.”

“That’s good. Did you ever talk with a professional about it?”

He shakes his head no. “You know how SHIELD’s shrinks are…” he trails off and starts strolling along the beach, Darcy walking beside him. “This feels so weird, talking about marrying another woman with the woman I married.”

“Talking about the exes is very important in a relationship. Trust me, our unofficial marriage counsellor, Natasha Romanoff, told me.” Steve grins slightly. “And even then,” Darcy continues, turning serious, “I’m your friend, so don’t feel bad about it. But I’m not a therapist or anything. If this keeps up, I will consider it my wifely duty to find you one.”

“Really, you don’t-” Steve starts protesting.

“No, don’t go all macho man on me. If you have problems, you go see a doctor. That’s all you need to know. I’m not your manic pixie dream girl that can heal you of everything with the magic of glitter and a sparkly attitude. We’ll find you somebody nice, independent of SHIELD, who you can trust with your deepest secrets, your deepest regrets.”

“Well, you basically know all these already.”

Darcy looks sternly at him. “Yes, but I refuse to be your crutch, Steve. You can’t lean on me too heavily. We can talk and I can listen, lend a sympathetic ear, but I can’t help you. We might be married at the moment, but we’re still two independent people.”

“Okay,” he nods, “I can live with that. What about you? Exes?” Steve asks. It’s clear that he wants to change the topic and Darcy lets him. “Anybody special in your life that you might’ve considered marrying at some point?”

“No, not really.”

“Do you think you might get married again some time?”

Now it’s Darcy’s turn to look out onto the water pensively. “I don’t know. I don’t want to say that my parents’ divorce scarred me for life, but… I know that marriage might not be forever, so why bother?”

“That’s a pretty decisive answer,” Steve says without judgement.

“Yeah, I mean, I could change my mind, but maybe marriage isn’t for me. And why would you need a license anyway?”

“Tax breaks?” Steve offers.

Darcy snorts. “Yeah, that’s right. How about you? Is marriage in your future?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Steve shrugs. “With everything that’s going on, it feels weird to make plans.”

“But you seem to be living a pretty normal, well-adjusted life,” Darcy quietly points out.

“Yeah, I do. And I’d like to think that I’m a little more traditional, that I’m still a child of my generation… a wife, 2.5 children, a dog and a house with a white picket fence, but these days… nothing is safe any longer… I don’t know. Companionship would be nice, but as you said: You can have that without a license. The social pressure to marry is gone… or at least lighter.”

“But you weren’t actively looking for companionship,” Darcy can’t help but tease. “Everybody knew how abysmal your love life was.”

Steve chuckles. “Why is it always my fault? Maybe I was just waiting for the right person to sweep me off my feet, pull me onto their white steed and then we’d gallop into the sunset together.”

Darcy laughs openly at that. “That’s been bothering me: Do you think we thought our marriage through?”

“Honestly? No,” Steve says firmly. “You don’t really do that if you get married to a person a week after meeting them the first time. Feelings or not: We totally rushed into it.”

“Yeah, I have that feeling too,” Darcy agrees. “But then there are people who make the quick marriage work. Love at first sight, quickie wedding in Vegas, together for life.”

“There are, and it’s enviable to a degree, but remember when we first talked about it: It’s not our style. We’re both too level-headed for it. Whatever we did, we probably thought we were clever, that we’d thought it through, but we had no idea.”

“Well, we couldn’t really factor in the memory loss,” Darcy remarks. “And I can’t help but wonder where we would be at this point without it. Do you think we’d still be married? Would we already be divorced? What about our feelings? Would we just be indifferent? Would we already hate each other? Would we be more in love?”

“All good questions,” Steve agrees. “We’ll never know. Probably also depends on why we got married.”

“Yeah, I’m really curious what made us get married,” Darcy says. “We’re two marriage sceptics who barely knew each other. Whatever the reason: It better make for an incredible story.”

Steve looks at her intently. “It already is an incredible story.”

Darcy just nods and they stroll along the beach in silence a little longer until it gets dark and Darcy gets cold.

“Better?” she asks Steve, who nods. “You ready to head home?”

“Yup, let’s go.”

~*~

Compared to their wedding earlier in the morning, the mission was uneventful. Getting the information from the bank was suspiciously easy. No complications, no interruptions from SHIELD, nobody recognised them. After all that had happened, Darcy half expected bad guys around every corner, but she and Steve entered the bank without any problems, Steve created a diversion and Darcy stole the data. It felt easy. Darcy asked herself if this was really the case or if she’d just gotten experienced in the ins and outs by now.

Darcy was glad that everything had gone so smoothly, apparently the third time kind of was like a charm, because by now exhaustion was setting in. They’d been gone constantly for a week now, without rest, and while it didn’t seem to affect Steve that much, Darcy was at a point, where she was beginning to feel drained and tired.

Once they were back on board, she fell onto the bed, closed her eyes and didn’t move for a moment or two. She could hear Steve clicking away on the computer, occasionally sighing in frustration. A few minutes passed, then Steve spoke up.

“There’s nothing,” he said.

Darcy lifted her head to look at him. “What?”

“There’s nothing. Nothing we can use at least.”

Darcy let out a sigh of relief. “Thank god.”

“What?” Steve said sharply.

Darcy let her head fall back onto the pillow. “I’m just glad that I don’t have to get up immediately to follow up on our new lead. A bit of respite is actually nice.”

“Do I have to remind you that there’s actually a deadline? This is not a honeymoon, this is not a vacation. And you’re still wanted for murder one.”

Darcy sat up on the bed at his icy tone. “Trust me, I know,” she countered acerbically. “I’m not asking for a honeymoon. I’m asking for a minute to catch my breath.”

“Didn’t sound like it. Sounds like you’re done.”

“Yes, for the day. I’m exhausted.” Steve narrowed his eyes at her. “I didn’t say that I wanted to stop doing all this. All I want is some quiet time and a good night’s sleep. We’re not all superpowered like you, you know,” Darcy felt forced to point out.

“This has nothing to do with superpowers, but with dedication.”

Darcy straightened and stared at him in disbelief for a moment. “I’m sorry, what?”

“We have stuff to do, your beauty rest can wait.”

“And right now we’ve hit a roadblock and I’m enjoying a moment of respite, what’s wrong with that?”

Steve shook his head at her, leading Darcy to frown at him. “What was that for?” she asked.

“I guess I just forgot how inexperienced and naïve you are.”

“What the fuck,” Darcy said, getting up from the bed to stand in front of Steve, defensive. “This is not my fault.”

“Well, it isn’t mine either,” Steve countered.

“Oh yes? You sure? Maybe it’s you.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Steve demanded.

“Maybe it was your meddling, you insinuating yourself into my mission made it escalate. I probably would be long home had I not been forced to partner with an Avenger. All the other rookies went on perfectly ordinary first missions with a boring level 4 agent or something. And what do I get?” She gestured at him. “The national icon, First Avenger, level gazillion top secret operative, embodiment of all that is good and just in this world, altogether pinnacle of physical perfection.”

“Well, this ‘pinnacle of physical perfection’ is the reason you’re still alive,” Steve said icily. “Tell that to the level 4 agent you were wishing for, who would probably have been long dead or captured. Or worse: part of the conspiracy.”

“Conspiracy? You’re the one who made it escalate after all. Maybe you want this to be bigger than it really is,” Darcy accused him.

“I saved your life! And Kiesewetter was a bad guy.”

“Yes, I know,” Darcy retorted. “That’s why _SHIELD_ sent me after him. But maybe we should revisit the moment where you decided that we couldn’t trust all of SHIELD.”

“I decided?” Steve repeated, flabbergasted. “You were as much part of it as I was.”

“All I know what’s happening at SHIELD is hearsay, from you,” Darcy pointed out, her voice low and dangerous. “Maybe my decision was based on incorrect data. I didn’t want to become an international fugitive for the rest of my life but then you stormed in and broke me out.”

“Do I have to remind you that I broke you out and helped you escape because otherwise you would be dead? Even without any threat to your life, I could’ve let you rot in that cell and sit back while SHIELD made you the fall guy. But I decided to help you.”

“Should I be grateful for that? That’s basic human decency. That’s kind of expected. Even more from Captain America, you know.”

Steve crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I did what I thought was right. That’s what I always do and, so far, it has rarely led me down the wrong path. We’ll find out what’s wrong and put an end to this, whether you like it or not.”

“We should stop kidding ourselves,” Darcy said, her eyes flashing. “Saying that we’ll do this and then head back in. It’s getting more improbable, the more we find out, the deeper we dig. We say one more thing and one more thing, but where do we stop? When do we admit failure? If we aren’t realistic about this, we’ll lose any chance to return unscathed. We’re digging ourselves into a hole.”

“And what’s wrong with that? We’re doing the right thing.”

“Well, out of the two of us, you won’t have to deal with any repercussions-”

“That’s not true,” Steve protested.

“And it must be so nice,” Darcy continued, “being an Avenger; swooping in; heroically saving the world. But you’re never there for the aftermath, you don’t have to worry about it so you don’t care. You didn’t clean up in New York, you don’t have to care about civilian casualties.”

“That’s not what I, what we, do,” Steve bit back.

“It surely looks that way,” Darcy countered, “like the Avengers can do whatever they want, earn universal adoration and then disappear, go back to their usual stuff, without facing consequences. Out of the two of us, you’ll be the one who will be gladly welcomed back into the fold. Remember, you had to marry me to put me on the radar, to give me some kind of protection at least.”

“Oh, I remember,” Steve growled, “our wedding vows are less than 12 hours old.”

“It was your fucking idea!” Darcy exclaimed. “We should never have done it. Maybe you offered to marry me so this whole façade could continue for a while longer. Maybe you don’t want it to stop.”

“There’s always two in this, you know,” Steve said sharply. “I didn’t force you in front of the altar. You’re as much a part of it as I am.”

“You dragged me into it!” Darcy countered, her voice rising. “You’re probably exaggerating everything. Maybe you see a mission everywhere in order to distract yourself from your lonely existence. No wonder the Black Widow volunteered you. You probably had nothing better to do!”

“You think I do this for fun?” Steve hissed. “That I relish in the responsibility? That I have nothing better to do? I fully expected to die that day in 1945 and yet, here I am. I hate running around playing Fury’s janitor. I’d loved to have woken up to a perfect utopia. But you guys had to muck it up, didn’t you?”

“Welcome to the club, buddy, because you mucked this up for me. Do you think I’m enjoying this? Us running around in outlaw-like fashion? Maybe it would’ve been better to give ourselves up. Maybe it would’ve been better if you’ve left me in that cell and tried to figure this out diplomatically. It might’ve trumped us evading authorities, me having to shoot a guy. We might pretend to be the good guys, but the line between legal and illegal is miles behind us!”

“You said you were okay with that!” Steve threw his arms up in frustration.

“Only because you were. You kind of follow Captain America into battle,” Darcy was close to yelling now. “I guess I should’ve said something the moment you were so okay with breaking the law.”

“You were the one who suggested it. And you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. If you don’t understand that, maybe this job isn’t the right thing for you.”

“You know,” Darcy said, her voice dangerously calm now, “I’ve kind of started to think this myself. Guess it’s a good thing I’ll probably be fired or worse once I’m back stateside. Maybe I should be thankful that I found out so early. But it would’ve been nice if you hadn’t made all decisions leading to this revelation for me.”

“No, you’re wrong. I never forced you to do anything, Darcy,” his voice was low and dangerous. He stalked towards the door and turned around once more to look at her. “Marriage or not, we’re in this together, you and I. We were in this together right from the start. You better come to terms with that or we’re done for.”

With that he walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. And Darcy realised with an onset of hysterical laughter that she would spend the night – her wedding night – alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of hugs and thanks to Em_Jaye for this. She helped figuring out the last part of this chapter.


	13. Chapter 13

### Chapter 13

She found Steve early the next morning on the ship’s deck not far from their room. He was sitting in one of the chairs, staring into the distance, idly playing with his wedding ring.

Darcy sat down next to him and they sat next to each other in silence, watching the sunrise.

“I’m sorry,” Steve finally said quietly without looking at her.

“I’m sorry too,” Darcy replied.

“I never meant to question your dedication to this. And I know that this is all rougher on you than on me. It’s just…” he trailed off.

“Cabin fever,” Darcy finished the thought for him, “we’ve been cooped up together quite a bit. We were strangers and we were forced to rely on each other. And now we’re married.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed softly.

“And you’re used to working with the best of the best. Not a middling rookie agent.”

“You’re not middling,” Steve objected immediately. “You’re really good. I didn’t mean it when I said that you’re not cut out for this job. I’d be happy to work with you again any time once we’re back stateside.”

“Thanks.” Darcy waited a moment. “I’m really sorry that I yelled at you and accused you of being arrogant and uncaring. I know you aren’t.”

“It’s alright.” Steve shrugged. “I deserved it.”

“No, you didn’t. I was really mean. The whole lonely existing thing… I didn’t mean what I said. All of us can be glad that you’re working on our… for the good side. We’re strangers, so I had no right so say what I said.”

He laughed humourlessly. “By now you know me better than most people.”

“Sorry.”

“Not your fault. Also, the brutal honesty was nice for a change. Not many people these days dare to do that.”

Darcy squinted at him for a moment. “You’re welcome?” she asked haltingly. “But seriously, I could’ve packaged my message a bit… a lot more nicely.”

“Yeah… but it’s okay now that it’s all blown over,” he shrugged. “We got our big argument out of the way. Better to clear the air than to let it fester.”

“That’s true,” Darcy agreed.

“And who knows? Maybe when all this is over, we’ll even be friends.”

“Yeah,” Darcy said quietly, “I could live with that.”

They sat in companionable silence for a while.

“So,” Darcy finally asked, “what are we going to do now?”

Steve let out a long sigh. “I don’t know.”

“Yeah, neither do I.”

“Do you still want to make our marriage official back home?” Steve asked.

“Yep.” Darcy nodded. “If I’m really getting prosecuted for murder one, I don’t want you on the witness stand. We’re doing this.”

Steve chuckled quietly. “Do you want to give yourself up then?” he asked earnestly.

“I guess so?” Darcy looked at Steve questioningly. “I mean… I meant what I said: I don’t want to continue this life of crime indefinitely, and definitely not until we die in a hail of bullets on a deserted Louisiana road or something. Better to give myself up on my own terms, be prepared, than to be arrested?”

Steve hummed in agreement. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“I’m a little disappointed though. I was really hoping we’d find out,” Darcy said pensively.

“Me too. But at some point we will. The truth will prevail.”

“But I was really hoping it would be me… us, finding the bigger conspiracy. You’ll have to do it for me while I’m locked up.”

“I will,” he promised earnestly.

“I hope it’s something big,” Darcy joked, “a big conspiracy, like ‘Captain America didn’t die, he disappeared, moved to the Midwest, married, had 2.5 children, a dog, and a house with a white picket fence.’”

Steve chuckled quietly. “That’s one of the nicer ones,” he said.

“True,” Darcy conceded, “you’re part of a lot of conspiracy theories. And I only know the old ones, all hatched before your return. There’s probably a billion more now.”

“Yeah, I guess so… Tony gifted me a book about them shortly after I woke up. Well, about conspiracy theories in general and there was one chapter about all the Captain America stuff.”

“What else was in there?” Darcy wanted to know.

“Moon landing, Roswell, Area 51, Elvis is still alive, 9/11, the JFK assassination, Pope John Paul I,” he listed them off.

Darcy nodded. “Classics.”

“And a few off-kilter ones, Avril Lavigne died and was replaced by a clone named Melissa, New Coke, the Reptilian Elite, there’s only one Olsen twin that moves around very quickly, Katy Perry is JonBenét Ramsey, Al Qaeda gamed the stock-” he broke off suddenly and stared into the distance. “Fuck,” he then exclaimed, jumping up from his chair.

“What?” Darcy looked up at him in confusion. “Steve-”

“It’s not money laundering, it’s insider trading. Fuck, why didn’t I realise this sooner?”

“Say what now?”

“Come on.” He grabbed her hand, forcing her to get up from the chair, and dragged her back to their cabin.

“Steve,” Darcy complained, tagging after him, “what the fuck.”

“Kiesewetter, he was part of an insider trading scheme,” he explained, once they were back inside and he’d closed the door behind them.

Darcy still stared at him, frowning. “Like Martha Stewart?”

“More like the villain in _Casino Royale_.”

“Wasn’t that about poker?” Darcy asked in confusion.

“Not in the beginning,” Steve explained impatiently.

“What-” Darcy was really confused now. “Steve?”

“Remember, this person tries to attack the plane, because in the aftermath the share price of the manufacturer will tank and Le Chiffre, the villain, will make a fortune on the stock market. Actions lead to reactions in the stock price. You can make billions if you know what’s going to happen – or if you can make something happen.”

“Ohhhhh,” Darcy realised, drawing out the sound, “that’s genius. And if Kiesewetter had some information-”

“Or his clients did-”

“Then he could make some seemingly random investments and win big.”

“Why didn’t I think about it sooner!” Steve berated himself, moving to the other end of the room to get the laptop out to look at the data they’d gathered. “It was right there before my eyes. It wasn’t money laundering at all. That’s why all the derivatives expire on the same day. They’re planning something big.”

“What are they targeting?” Darcy mused out loud. “There was such a great variety in the trades.”

“There has to be a pattern. There has to be.”

“Okay,” Darcy nodded, “let’s divide and conquer.”

They poured over the data they’d gathered so far once more.

“It’s mostly mining,” Steve said after a few minutes. “Mining companies, tin derivatives.”

“Tin is a conflict mineral,” Darcy said quietly, almost to herself, while she went through her share of data.

Steve looked up from his screen. “What?”

“Conflict minerals,” Darcy explained, looking up as well, “natural resources that finance violence, civil wars, mostly in the DRC – Democratic Republic of the Congo – region, and are used in almost all of the major consumer electronics in the world. Tin, or rather cassiterite, is one of them.”

Steve thought for a moment. “So tin is vulnerable.”

Darcy shrugged. “Depends. It’s highly regulated, yes. But it’s not strictly forbidden to use cassiterite from the DRC; companies can buy it but in most of the western countries they’ll have to report their sources. So basically, you can’t use the ones from the DRC without public backlash.”

“Tin – cassiterite would be a good target then?”

Darcy leaned back in her chair for a moment. “I mean, I guess so? Companies need it in their production and there’s limited supply. But so are a lot of other resources. Let’s not be too quick to draw a conclusion.”

“The derivatives are a solid lead, though,” Steve pointed out. “I mean, if anything happens to the resource itself, the price will probably skyrocket. Judging from the derivatives, they’re betting on rising prices. And you take one half of the companies they were betting on, I’ll take the other, if they’re all involved in cassiterite mining in some form, then we have our target.”

Darcy and Steve went through another stack of company information to find that information, which confirmed their hunch.

“How do you influence a major price hike though?” Darcy asked. “If that’s what they’re doing?”

“Definitely,” Steve nodded. “And the one way to let a price skyrocket is to make a resource scarce. Like you said: companies need it, if there’s limited supply, the price rises. Supply and demand and all that economics stuff.”

“So, hit the mines. That would lead to a reaction on the price, right?”

Steve nodded. “Definitely. You’d have to close some major operations though.”

“So, where are they going to hit?” Darcy asked. “We can’t narrow it down because they’re basically targeting an entire industry.”

Steve let out a long breath. “Shit, good question. Are there any other sources for cassiterite other than the DRC?”

Darcy looked it up on her computer. “Bolivia and Rwanda.”

“So we can’t really narrow it down geographically.”

“Except for when they hit all of them.”

“How many mines are there?” Steve asked.

“Too many,” Darcy simply said.

They sat in silence for a long moment. “I mean,” Darcy finally said. “I think we figured out their general plan, but now we’re again at the same point we were yesterday: We need more information and we have no way of getting it.”

~*~

Steve’s alone at night in his apartment for a change, because Darcy, who spends most of the evenings here, is out with Jane. Much to Darcy’s delight, Jane had arrived this morning in DC for a long overdue visit before she will leave for Patagonia in a week or two. Steve had met Jane earlier that day, when Darcy had introduced them, but then left the two to go out to catch up.

He’s sitting at his desk, sketching, when at around 11 there’s a scratching sound at his door, like somebody is trying to use the keys – or is trying to break in. Steve frowns and then gets up from his desk to investigate.

He gazes through the peephole and sees Darcy, Natasha, and Jane standing in front of his door. He opens it just to ask what they are doing at this time of night, but he doesn’t get a chance to do that.

“Steeeeeve!” Darcy throws herself into his arms, then straightens, marches straight past him into the apartment, and heads for the kitchen. For a moment, he wants to go after her, because she’s very visibly drunk and she might hurt herself, but instead he turns around and looks questioningly at Natasha and Jane, who stare at him in amusement.

“You guys wanna come in?” Steve offers.

“No,” Jane shakes her head.

“We’re just here to deliver your wife.” Nat grins widely. “She couldn’t remember where she lived.”

Steve squints at them for a moment. “You’re a spy and you’re a world-renowned scientist, you don’t know? Or couldn’t figure it out?”

“We could’ve, but then, the whole marriage thing…” Jane begins. “For better, for worse.”

“For richer, for poorer,” Nat adds.

Steve silently shakes his head, knowing which part is to come next.

“In sickness and in health,” Jane recites earnestly.

“Darcy is Jewish so I don’t think we went for Christian vows,” Steve counters, “we probably had nondenominational vows if we had any.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Natasha states matter-of-factly. “And also, she kind of insisted to be delivered to her husband.”

“…Right.”

“It was very adorable,” Jane insists.

“Absolutely.” Natasha nods.

Steve looks back into his apartment. He can hear the fridge door opening. “How drunk is she?” he asks.

“Very,” Natasha supplies unhelpfully, “we didn’t mean to do it, but she’s a lightweight. She was very talkative by the way.”

Steve ignores her. “It’s kind of mean to do that on a work night,” he says instead.

“She’ll survive,” Jane says airily, but looks guilty nevertheless.

“More importantly: You guys totally went on a date the other day. Chesapeake Bay?” Natasha prompts.

“Not a date,” Steve disagrees. “Just a trip.”

“Well, they do say that Virginia is for lovers.”

“We went to the Maryland side,” Steve counters.

Natasha just shakes her head.

“So you guys are really not gonna come in?” Steve asks.

“Nah,” Natasha says, taking Jane’s arm, who looks a little hesitant, “we’ll leave you with the wayward wife.”

“Tell Darcy we’ll talk in the morning,” Jane adds, grimacing slightly.

“If she’ll still talk to you then,” Steve points out.

Steve walks back into his apartment to find Darcy. She’s not in the kitchen, but he finds a half-empty glass of milk on the countertop.

He finds her in his bedroom, out cold on his bed, spread out like a star fish on his comforter. She must’ve dropped on it face first. She’s snoring loudly. Steve shakes his head good-naturedly and looks at her affectionately for a moment. She looks younger and like she has no worry in the world. He asks himself if he saw her like this, too, on their two-week adventure.

He goes to the living room to find a blanket for her. He removes her shoes, puts some water and painkillers on the bedside table and before going back to his drawing.

Darcy is hungover and embarrassed the next morning. Steve teases her a little, but also makes her breakfast.

“Ugh,” Darcy groans, “you’re a god among men. Also I’m gonna kill Jane.”

“If it’s any consolation, Jane looked like she felt bad.”

“Still, she brought Natasha along! Why?”

“Natasha can be very persuasive,” Steve points out.

“It was more a rhetorical question. But how do these two even know each other? Anyway, thanks for letting me crash with you.” Darcy gets up from her chair.

“You want a ride?” Steve offers.

“And appear at SHIELD in yesterday’s clothes? No thank you.”

Steve catches up with Darcy at the Triskelion an hour later.

“What I wanted to add, about yesterday’s clothing,” Steve says, falling into step next to her and continuing their conversation from an hour ago. “Darcy, whatever you do, I’ll still respect you in the morning.”

Darcy elbows him in the side for that. “Speaking of respect: There was no need for you to sleep on the couch,” she adds.

“Other than protect my virtue?” he teases.

“Dude, a month ago you told the entire office about the state of your virtue.”

“Well, I had to sleep elsewhere since was no space left for me. You slept like a star fish across the bed,” Steve argues. “Also, I didn’t sleep on the couch. I have a second bedroom.”

“Well, you won’t have to deal with that much longer seeing that we’re basically only waiting for the divorce papers to be ready,” Darcy shoots back.

A SHIELD agent that is walking by stops mid-stride to stare at them aghast.

“What?” Darcy stares at him defiantly before making a shooing motion. “We’re having a marital dispute. Yes, we’re discussing divorce. Move along.”

Steve just shakes his head, grinning, but doesn’t say anything. He wonders if the subject of this exchange will make rounds at the Triskelion.

“Anyway,” Darcy continues, “I’m gonna forgive Jane and I still need to see her. She’s gonna head off to Patagonia so soon. I need some alone time with her. Why is she always heading off-”

Steve stops dead in his tracks. “You never told me you were Jewish,” he interrupts her rambling.

Darcy stares at him, frowning at the non-sequitur. “What? Huh?” She is visibly confused. “Is this because of Passover? I didn’t celebrate because I don’t really-”

“No, you never told me that you were Jewish,” Steve repeats.

“Yes,” Darcy say impatiently. “And?”

“Then how would I know? Last night, when Nat and Jane appeared and taunted me a little, I told them that we probably didn’t have Christian vows, the ‘richer and poor, for better and for worse’ kind, because you were Jewish. How would I know that?”

Darcy’s eyes go wide but tries not to get too excited. “Maybe you read it in my file?”

“No,” Steve shakes his head decisively, “that I would know. I read your file before we flew to Germany and that wasn’t in there.”

She grabs his hand and drags him into an empty room. She gets her scrunchie out and puts her hair up. “Holy shit. You’re starting to remember.” She stares at him wide-eyed. “Any other stuff you might recall? Do you remember when I told you? Where I told you?”

Steve closes his eyes for a second, but nothing comes to him, except, “You told me about your mom, that she wanted you to get married in white. It’s a day of spiritual renewal.”

Darcy is silent for a moment. “And you’re sure that you’re remembering this from our past adventure? That you couldn’t have seen this somewhere? Heard somewhere? Making the stuff about my mom up from something unrelated you saw somewhere?”

Steve nods. “Yes, I’m sure you told me. And that I’m not making it up.”

“Wow,” Darcy breathes. “That’s so random though,” she adds, a moment later.

“And not really helpful.” Steve grimaces. “A random fact you already know about yourself without any context as to why you told me. That’s nothing we can work with.”

“But you’re starting to remember, that’s great news,” Darcy tries to cheer him up. “And I, for one, can’t wait to figure out what other random fact about me you’ll come up with.”

~*~

Darcy rubbed her tired eyes and looked up from the screen in front of her. “I need a break. We-”

“Sorry,” Steve immediately said, “if you’re still exhausted, it’s fine if you–”

“No,” Darcy cut him off, “ _we_ need a break. They’d been pouring over data for hours now – to no avail.”

Steve sighed. “I told you that Cayman trusts are notoriously hard to figure out.”

“And all the other data about tin is inconclusive. We should do something else,” Darcy suggested.

“Darcy, there’s–”

“I know there’s a deadline, Steve, but we’re not getting anywhere. You need three law degrees and probably another seven certifications to figure this out. Blindly staring at the data hoping that something will reveal itself is not gonna work. We should take a moment and then regroup.”

Steve leaned back in his chair. “So what do you suggest we’re doing?”

“Enjoy our honeymoon.” She grinned at him innocently.

Steve squinted at her. “I know I said that in anger last night, but still–”

“I know, but I’m kind of serious. Let’s go off board for a little while, stretch our legs, and then return to what we’re doing. Where are we anchored again?”

“Havana,” Steve answered without thinking.

“No!” Darcy stared at him wide-eyed. “Now we have to go!”

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s Cuba, Steve. One of the few remaining countries the US doesn’t have diplomatic ties with. It’s one of our last, old enemies.”

Steve didn’t look entirely convinced.

“Oh, I forgot that you weren’t awake for all of the Cold War,” Darcy teased.

“And you weren’t even born when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened,” Steve shot back.

“We have to go,” Darcy implored, “it’s so difficult to get to Cuba as an American. No sitting president has visited in almost a century. We have to go.”

“But nobody knows we’re here,” Steve argued, “on this ship. What if we get found out? We should just stay put.”

“Well, American intelligence operations on Cuba are minimal – except the usual stuff of making sure that the evil commies do nothing stupid. And if anybody recognises us and makes it public, your visit will definitely scandalise a few Fox News reporters – which is a win, I say.” Darcy looked at him pleadingly.

“Fine,” Steve finally conceded, “but we’ll only stay three hours max. And no attracting attention to ourselves in any form!”

They met Gordon on their way towards the shore, who winked at them exaggeratedly, but thankfully didn’t say anything.

“So, now that we’re married,” Darcy began once they were on land, “we should probably tell each other our most embarrassing childhood stories.”

Steve raised both eyebrows at her. “Okay, you start,” he said.

“Oh man, I thought I’d get some dirt on Captain America.”

“My entire life is well-known,” Steve tried to point out.

“That’s bullshit. Your entire life has been sanitised for consumption from the general public during the war and then they basically drew a halo around your head once you’d disappeared into the ice.”

“I couldn’t have put it better.”

“Doesn’t that annoy you?”

“No,” Steve shrugged, “we all have our role to play.”

“So tell me something real then,” Darcy challenged him.

Steve thought for a moment. “I don’t know… I was a 100-pound asthmatic and I was angry. Well, not angry at everything, but bullies got to me. I didn’t back down from a fight. Bucky–” he stopped abruptly and swallowed hard.

Darcy looked at him curiously. “Do you ever talk about him?” she asked. “Your best friend?”

Steve just shook his head silently.

“Maybe you should,” Darcy suggested.

“There isn’t much to say,” Steve said forcefully, “he’s dead. It’s my fault.”

Darcy was quiet. “I… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

“It’s alright,” Steve said with a throw-away gesture that felt very forced.

They were silent for a moment.

“I go to my own exhibition sometimes,” Steve then said quietly, much to Darcy’s surprise. “Well, not sometimes, pretty often I should say. And there’s a section about Bucky there too, and all the other Howling Commandos, and it’s… nice. There weren’t many photos and films made during our time, I don’t own any, so it’s the only place,” Steve cleared his throat, “I can see Bucky and Peggy, really. I miss them a lot.”

Darcy just hummed quietly in understanding, but didn’t say anything further. They wandered the streets of the city in companionable silence for a while.

“This was a good idea,” Steve finally said. “You were right.”

“And already you’ve learned the second most important three words a husband can tell a wife. You are right,” Darcy teased.

Steve snorted. “Are you going to make fun of our… arrangement the entire time?”

“Of course I am. It’s not like it means anything. But seriously, I can’t believe we did that. I’m married to Captain America,” Darcy said, the reality of it only sinking in slowly. “I know that it’s not forever, but would you be okay with postponing our divorce until after my next high school reunion? I totally need to make Kristy, my high school nemesis, jealous.”

Steve grinned. “Absolutely. I’m always up to mess with bullies.”

“Perfect.”

They made it back to the ship soon after, they switched the data they were combing through earlier that day and went back to work.

“I might have found something,” Steve, who had taken over looking at financial reports, from Darcy, said after a while.

“What do you mean?”

“All the companies were registered by the same person.”

“What?”

“The companies they’re funnelling the money through. A law firm was involved in their creation. The articles of incorporation and the registration were all handled by the same person in that firm.”

“You’re kidding.”

Steve shook his head and typed along for a moment. “Gibson, Ali & Ellis. They’re a large corporate law firm in Panama City. Jonathan Ellis is one of their name partners.”

“Does that mean he knows something?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, he seems involved. But then… it could also only be his job, part of a service the law firm offers.”

They both thought for a moment. “I mean…” Darcy began before trailing off, not sure what she’d meant to say.

“Have you found anything further?” Steve asked.

Darcy shook her head. “And I don’t think I’ll find anything. I’m way out of my depth with this one.”

“For the lack of better options–” Steve began carefully.

“We should probably talk to Jonathan Ellis.”

~*~

Steve’s home from work just for a few minutes, when his phone rings, the caller ID indicating it’s Darcy.

“You just talked to me half an hour ago,” he says as he answers. “What’s up now?”

“Did you get them?” Darcy asks without preamble.

“Get what?”

“I had the papers in the mail today.”

It takes Steve a second to understand what she means. “Divorce papers? Wait a second, I’m going down to my mailbox right now.”

There’s a large brown envelope from their lawyer in his mail. He opens it and finds a few pre-filled forms.

“Yeah,” Steve says softly, “there they are.”

It’s less paperwork than he’d expected. Their attorney has prepared everything to their specifications. They didn’t need any custody or child support arrangements. Steve will pay no alimony and both keep their respective assets and debts. Steve is the original filer of the divorce and Darcy should have a matching set of documents where she consents to the proceedings. His set is marked at certain spots for his signature. They have to sign, file it with the DC Family Court, and wait for their hearing; 30 days after that, their marriage will officially be over.

He stares at them for a long moment. It feels weird that it should be so easy. They still don’t know how their marriage happened, but they can simply get rid of it. He still thinks that it’s just a piece of paper, that neither a marriage license nor the divorce papers should change things, won’t change things with Darcy, but since the nature of their marriage is so unusual, the divorce now feels like a let-down.

“Maybe we shouldn’t sign them,” Darcy says in a rush.

Steve feels relief wash over him, but quickly ignores that feeling.

“I mean, for now,” Darcy continues. “You know, there’s this unauthorised side mission that we’re carrying out very much under SHIELD’s radar, which is probably in violation of several national or even international security laws. So, if we stay married and SHIELD gets wind of it, we’ll be protected by spousal privilege.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Steve agrees.

“There’s no rush,” Darcy says. “I just want to be in the all clear. We should only get divorced once we know everything.”

“Yeah, I agree. If I’m court-marshalled, I really don’t want you as a witness for the prosecution.”

“But it would make a great movie,” Darcy jokes. “But seriously, if you’re court-marshalled, I should probably plead the Fifth anyway.”

“Yeah, true. Works the other way around as well.”

“And: you can totally take advantage of tax breaks if you stay married to me. All I bring to this marriage are my student loans and my charming personality.”

Steve chuckles. “You make a strong case.”

“I’m really not, but Steve-” Darcy breaks off and for a moment there is simply quiet at the other end of the line. “We can get the divorce if you want to,” she finally says, “but, from a logical, unemotional standpoint, it makes sense for it to continue.”

“Yeah, no,” Steve hastens to assure her, “I get it. Despite the weirdness, this marriage protects us, so maybe we should take advantage of that until we know what we did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Who would’ve guessed that Steve quoting James Bond earlier was a means to establish him referencing it later?
> 
> 2) No sitting president has visited Cuba in 100 years: This story is set in 2014. In 2016, then-President Obama actually visited Cuba.
> 
> 3) All but one of the conspiracy theories Steve mentioned are real, btw. Google them if you want to find out more and generally laugh a lot.
> 
> 4) While I was writing this story, somebody actually tried to execute the terrorist post I’d thought about for more than a year at that point for real. Yes, I’m not kidding. Not for the same resources, but a guy did try to blow up a German football (soccer) team that’s listed on the stock exchange in hopes [to make](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39664212) [big bucks](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/04/21/alleged-borussia-dortmund-bomb-plot-straight-bond-movie/) [on the stock market](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2017/04/21/borussia-dortmund-bus-attack-arrest-made/100734222/) [when their stock price](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/world/europe/borussia-dortmund-bus-attack.html) [crashed as a result of said attack](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-champions-dor-mon-blast-idUSKBN17N0G3). Here are two examples for some minor schemes as well.  
> [ Twitter Hoax Sparks Swift Stock Swoon](https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323735604578441201605193488)  
> [ A Florida Man Allegedly Tried To Tank Target's Stock By Plotting Store Bombings](https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2017/02/17/florida-man-charged-target-bomb-scheme-stock-price/#1f2c9156584a)
> 
> Here are two more articles about conflict minerals. The one on the National Geographic I found very influential.  
> [The Price of Precious](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2013/10/conflict-minerals/)  
> [Exposed: Child Labour Behind Smart Phone and Electric Car Batteries](https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2016/01/child-labour-behind-smart-phone-and-electric-car-batteries/)
> 
> Here are some scholarly articles about terrorism and the stock market:  
> [ Unusual Option Market Activity and the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 (JSTOR)](http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/503645)  
> [ Was There Abnormal Trading in the S&P 500 Index Options Prior to the September 11 Attacks? (SSRN)](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1588523)  
> [ Detecting Abnormal Trading Activities in Option Markets (SSRN)](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1522157)
> 
> Articles from September and October 2001 about suspicions that Al Queda really gamed the stock market  
> [ Follow the Money](https://www.barrons.com/articles/SB1002331448397595000)  
> [ Terrorist trade probe widens](http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0109190296sep19-story.html)


	14. Chapter 14

### Chapter 14

“Hey Honey, do you have a sec?”

Darcy looks up from her work and frowns at Steve standing in the door. The term of endearment feels strange, unnatural. But he looks at her earnestly, so she doesn’t say anything, just nods.

He comes into her office, closes the door behind him, and gestures for her to put her hair up. Her frown deepens.

“So I guess the ‘Honey’ was just to establish cover?” she asks when she’s sure that they aren’t overheard.

“Nope, just trying it out,” Steve grins, for which Darcy glares at him.

“What’s up?”

“Do you think there’s such a thing as a déjà vu?”

“Sure.”

“I saw an agent today who I recognised but I’m sure I’ve never seen her before.”

“100%?” Darcy makes sure.

“100%,” Steve confirms.

“So you think that you might have seen her during the two week we were AWOL,” Darcy realises, hoping that that’s true. While Darcy is still waiting for her first memories to return, Steve’s memory has been improving as of late. However, none of his memories have proven to be helpful to their case. It’s mostly little things about Darcy, the name of her high school nemesis, her high school Spanish teacher, the trips she took with her father when she was young. It’s very random and strangely personal and it makes Darcy seriously question what they did and exactly how close they got to each other while they were together for two weeks.

“I mean, that makes sense, right?” Steve asks, sounding a little uncertain.

“For normal people, I would have my doubts, but since you have near eidetic memory, I have zero doubts.” Steve sighs in relief. “You didn’t happen to catch a name, did you?”

Steve grins. “Oh, of course I did. It’s Sarah Unverzagt.”

“Let me look her up.” Darcy enters her name into the lookup on the SHIELD website. “She’s a higher level than me. Her information is classified.”

“Wait, let me.” Steve walks around the desk and logs in under his name, but even he only gets bare bones information about her. “Wow, she must be really high up in the hierarchy,” Steve says, looking at her picture and the accompanying information.

Darcy taps on the screen, where she sees information that might be relevant to their search. “She’s from the Wiesbaden office. Which is the office that covers the Frankfurt area.”

“So she could’ve been involved in the initial case,” Steve says, sounding a little disappointed.

“But then she would’ve been part of the report for the Kiesewetter mission.”

“True. So we can at least assume that I have met her at some point in Germany?”

“Yes,” Darcy nods.

“But we can’t find out more,” Steve adds.

“I mean, we could straight up go ahead and ask her.”

“Do you think that’s wise? If she met us and didn’t say or report anything – neither in the Kiesewetter file nor for the investigation into our disappearance – she probably has a good reason? A reason that should make us not trust her and not approach her?”

“Yes,” Darcy agrees, disappointed. “Finally, a good lead from your memories and it’s a dead end.”

“Well, hopefully my next memory – or even your first memory – will be more helpful.”

~*~

“Are you certain you want to do this?” Steve asked. “So far, only 5 people in the world – including you and me – know. We don’t have to tell anybody and can simply get a very quiet annulment.”

“We already went ahead and got married and then had a big fight about it,” Darcy pointed out. “And, you know, this protects us, protects me. We should follow through with this.”

Steve only nodded before opening SHIELD’s HR system in his browser and began updating his next of kin. He attached a copy of their preliminary marriage certificate they’d received since the notarised version would take a few weeks to arrive, hit save, and closed it. Darcy did exactly the same after him.

“How long do you think it’ll take for people to find out?” Steve asked.

“With all the talk about your love life? Half of the Triskelion will know by the end of the day.”

They took off their wedding bands immediately after they’d disembarked and set off for their next destination. They made it to Panama City around noon and checked into a hotel close to the law firm. They cased the office building and the surrounding area. The law firm occupied 10 stories in a downtown office building. The security at the entrance was surprisingly strict.

“Because they have something to hide,” Darcy declared.

“Or because of the other tenants,” Steve pointed out.

“Ugh, don’t be so damn logical,” she complained good-naturedly.

Their teamwork was easier now, more light-hearted. It was almost unbelievable that less than 48 hours ago, they’d yelled at each other and Steve had stalked out of their room. It was probably a side-effect from being cooped up together for such a long time. Everything happened quicker; everything was more intense, though Steve couldn’t help but ask himself if he’d gotten along so well with every random stranger SHIELD could have paired him with.

They found a place with public Wi-Fi and Darcy tried hacking the law firm’s servers in order to find out more about their intended mark, but after an hour of Darcy grumbling and cursing under her breath, she declared that it was impossible. Their security system was too tight. She would need to get inside the actual building to gain access.

“And that’s not going to happen,” Steve said.

“What do you mean? I have an awesome track record,” Darcy joked. “The first time I got framed for murder and the second time I had to pull the fire alarm to get out. I’m telling you, third time’s a charm.”

Steve just shook his head, grinning to himself, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he focused on finding out more about Jonathan Ellis via publicly available data. The information they’d found about him so far had been bare-bones, from the company website and google: He was in his late 40s, married, with three children. Born and raised in Massachusetts, undergrad at Boston University, law degree from Georgetown. He still held an inactive membership of the DC bar. He’d emigrated to Panama 20 years ago and founded the law firm that bore his name with two of his friends. He was a member of the International Bar Association, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, and the Panama Bar Association. Even his picture had been of a non-descript middle-aged white guy. Much to Darcy’s disappointment, nothing about him had screamed ‘involved in financing international terrorism’.

“He likes sailing,” Darcy said after a while, apparently she’d also tried to find out more about their mark, “so clichéd.”

“And the opera,” Steve added.

Darcy perked up at that. “Oh really?”

“Yup, sits on the board of trustees of the Teatro Nacional.”

Darcy contemplated it for a moment. “Do you think he’s going there frequently?” she asked. “Maybe we could intercept him there and ask him some questions?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know. In the same vein, we could probably hang around his yachting club and hope he’ll make an appearance there.”

Darcy turned back to her computer. “Okay, but they are premiering the Marriage of the Figaro tomorrow,” she pointed out after a few keystrokes.

“Still no guarantee that he’ll be there.”

“No,” Darcy agreed, reaching for his phone, “but we can try finding out the old-fashioned way.”

Before Steve had any chance to ask what she meant, she’d already dialled a number – only to hang up 10 seconds later.

Steve frowned at her.

“I kind of forgot that I don’t speak Spanish,” Darcy explained sheepishly. “Mr. Moss only taught me so much.”

“Mr. Moss?”

“High school Spanish teacher. I liked him, but, you know, I don’t really had talent for foreign languages. But I can fake almost any English accent any day of the week. Anyway, not important.”

“What were you trying to find out?”

“Just calling his assistant to ask him about his plans for tomorrow.”

Steve reached out and took the phone from her. “If you tell me what I should say, I can do it.”

Darcy looked at him in surprise for a moment. “Right, language ability,” she said more to herself. “Say you’re from the opera. Ask for Jonathan Ellis’ office. You’ll be put through to an assistant of some sort. Just ask them to confirm his attendance tomorrow. Depending on the answer, you either say you look forward to seeing him there or that you’re sad he’ll miss the performance. That should be all.”

“Okay,” Steve took a deep break, “I can do that.”

It was really as easy as Darcy had made it sound. “He’s going to be there tomorrow night,” he told Darcy after hanging up.

“Nice!” Darcy exclaimed.

Steve leaned back in his chair. “Okay, now that we know where he’s going to be, how do we get him to talk?”

They both thought for a moment. “I mean, torture won’t work,” Darcy said contemplatively.

“Also: unlawful and unethical,” Steve felt forced to point out, at which Darcy grinned widely.

“I knew you’d say that.”

They sat in silence some time, each trying to figure out what to do next.

“If this were SHIELD, we could offer him protection,” Steve said. “He might be a bad guy, but if he gets us to the bigger evil…”

“But we’re not with SHIELD,” Darcy said, “and we decided that we wouldn’t get them involved. And are you really comfortable lying about offering him protection and then letting him – and his family – hang high and dry?”

“No,” Steve admitted.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Again they were silent.

“Intimidation?” Darcy then offered the same moment Steve suggested, “Blackmail.”

“Maybe we could dangle him off a tall building or something,” Darcy explained.

“I thought he must have some skeletons in the closet,” Steve said.

“Oh, yes, I like that,” Darcy agreed. “I mean, that would be great. But how do we get it? We tried hacking him already.”

“You’re the pickpocket, you’ll steal his phone tomorrow.”

“And you think that’ll be enough? That we’ll find something?”

Steve shrugged. “I hope so. Otherwise we can dangle him off a tall building or something,” he joked.

“So we steal his phone before the beginning of the performance, hope that we’ll find some incriminating information, and intercept him to interrogate him on the way out?”

Steve nodded. “That’s the only idea I have.”

“Okay,” Darcy agreed, “let’s do this. We have to get a tux for you and a dress for me,” she added, sounding suspiciously excited, “because it’s not a real spy story without formal wear.”

~*~

Darcy’s back early at her apartment the next night. Steve had to go on a last-minute 24-hour training session somewhere in the middle of nowhere and Jane went back to New York, so she’s alone for a change. She stares at the stuff that Tony Stark gifted them, that’s still piled high in her apartment. Most of it is still wrapped up and she hasn’t had time to get rid of it. She’s considering making this her project for the night, or probably the entire week, when here’s a soft rasp at her door. Darcy stares at it for a moment. She isn’t expecting anybody.

“Who’s there?” she asks.

“DC drain doctor,” a cheery voice answers from behind the closed door.

Darcy gets up to look through the peephole and there is a guy standing in a workman’s uniform with a toolbox in his hand. He’s smiling brightly and rocking on the balls of his feet.

“I didn’t call for any repairman,” Darcy says.

“Your landlord called us, there’s a problem with the building. We’ve been tasked with clearing all the pipes before something bursts and there’s an even larger issue.”

She unlocks the hatch on her door and the moment she opens it, he lunges at her and pushes her backwards.

Darcy has a split second to see that he’s holding a gun with a silencer attached, finger pressed against the trigger. She kicks against his outstretched hand and the gunshot misses her by a fraction of an inch. The bullet buries itself into the wall on the other side of the room.

Darcy uses her attacker’s momentary surprise and grabs hold of the gun. They struggle and another bullet ends up in the floor, but then Darcy manages to drive her knee against his outstretched hand. He lets go of the gun and it goes flying and lands on the other side of the room.

Darcy lunges forward, successfully throws him off balance for a few seconds and he stumbles back against her couch. She manages to kick him in the abdomen and, as he falls forwards, drives her knee into his face.

He’s surprised for moment and Darcy runs for the door, but he regains his bearings faster than she expected and kicks her in the back, making her fall forward. She braces her hands against the wall and turns around to duck just in time before he can punch her in the face.

She aims a kick at his legs, but he’s faster than her and this time his fist finds their target and he hits Darcy’s left cheek. Darcy can taste the blood in her mouth and she stumbles backwards, against the packed boxes.

Again her attacker aims his fists at her, but Darcy manages to block his first blow and ducks the second, which lands in the wall of boxes behind her. They fall to the floor with a shattering sound, some of them opening.

Darcy moves around him and towards the door again, but he lunges at her, pulls her backwards and off balance, and sweeps at her feet. Darcy falls forward. She manages to brace the fall with her hands, but her attacker moves over her, grabs her hair, hits her again in the face, and then bangs her head against the coffee table.

She feels the back of her skull colliding with the wood surface and there’s an explosion of pain and, for a moment, white before her eyes. Her attacker uses her temporary weakness and grabs hold of her shirt to drag her towards him. Darcy kicks out with her legs, trying to get a hold of something, but can’t. The pain in her head is excruciating.

He crawls on top of her and puts his hands around her neck.

Darcy puts her hands against his chest and pushes as hard as she can, but she can’t breathe and he’s so much stronger than her. His fingers press against her windpipe and Darcy can feel the blood pulsing in her temples. Her eyes begin to blur. She knows that it’s pointless to cry out.

Her hands roam the floor around her but her hands don’t find anything that would help her. She feels all that junk that Tony Stark bought for them, the monogrammed towels, the personalised candles, and the plates for the 24-person set, shattered into tiny pieces.

Her head swims, the edges of her vision turn dark and then she feels something solid in left hand.

The expensive knives Tony gifted her and Steve. The knife block must’ve fallen out of the box together with the rest of the kitchen stuff. Darcy manages to wrap her hand around one of the knives, pulls it out of the knife block, swings her arm and rams it into her attacker’s neck.

Blood sprays out of the entry wound and onto Darcy. Her attacker stares at her for a moment and makes a weird choking sound before he crumbles and falls onto her. Darcy can feel his blood seeping through her clothes and she pushes him off with great effort.

Her head swims, she feels like she’s going to throw up. Her attacker takes a noisy, gurgling breath and then there’s silence. The blood continues to seep onto the floor and into her carpet.

Darcy pulls herself up to a sitting position and takes a few deep, painful breaths before she manages to haul herself up to her feet to find her phone. She makes it out of her apartment, collapses against the wall in the hallway and, with trembling hands, dials 911.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The law firm is obviously based on the [Mossack Fonseca leak](https://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/en/), [the Panama Papers](https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/explore-panama-papers-key-figures/), and the Paradise Papers
> 
> In case you want to hear more about how the rich hide their money, I can recommend "Capital Without Borders: Wealth Management and the One Percent" by Brooke Harrington. [Here's an excerpt](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/elite-wealth-management/410842/). And there's also this: [Money-Laundering and Globalization (UN)](https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/money-laundering/globalization.html) and [Why Tax Havens Are Political and Economic Disasters](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/tax-haven-curse/491411/)


	15. Chapter 15

### Chapter 15

Once Steve is finished with the SHIELD-mandated last-minute training session and comes out showered and changed, he looks at his phone and notices missed calls from Darcy, several unknown numbers and then Natasha.

Darcy’s number goes straight to voicemail, so he tries Natasha next.

“Darcy was attacked,” Nat starts without preamble. Steve stomach plummets and he stops dead in his tracks for a moment. “She’s fine but had to kill her attacker in self-defense. Severed his carotid artery.”

“Where is she?”

“At her apartment.”

Steve hangs up without any further words, runs towards the garage, gets onto his bike and speeds out of the Triskelion and into DC, towards Darcy’s apartment complex. When he arrives at his destination, he parks his bike next to a police cruiser and runs towards the door. There are police forces that secure the area and a lot of SHIELD personnel running around.

A SHIELD agent stops him at the entrance to the building. “This is not your jurisdiction, Captain Rogers.”

Steve doesn’t even bother to hide his irritation. “Excuse me?”

“You’re not involved in the investigation; it’s neither STRIKE nor Avengers business.”

Steve stares at him in disbelief for a moment. “How about the fact that she’s my wife?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

Later Steve will find it funny that he met one of the few SHIELD agents that didn’t know about his marriage, but he’s too impatient now. “I’m married to Darcy Lewis. Agent Darcy Lewis of SHIELD is my wife.”

The agent gapes at him but touches his earpiece to confirm and finally lets Steve through. Steve runs upstairs, taking two steps at a time, and when he makes it to Darcy’s floor he sees her immediately and breathes a sigh of relief.

Darcy is sitting on the floor outside her apartment. The door is standing wide open and Steve sees the body lying in the middle of her apartment and the members of the crime scene unit walking around. She’s wearing a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and below that a SHIELD hoodie that is far too large for her. He registers the split lip, the purple bruise on her cheekbone and the ugly bruising around her neck. There are smears of blood on her face and neck – not her own, he notices with relief – which she tries to wipe off absentmindedly. He approaches slowly and crouches down in front of her.

“Hey,” he says quietly.

“Hey,” Darcy answers. Her voice sounds raw and hoarse and she stares at something a thousand miles away.

Steve isn’t sure what to say to her, so her just looks her over once more, registers her trembling hands, still splattered with blood, and takes them into his. This makes Darcy look up at him and she sighs. She looks tired and weak.

“Did they process you already?” Steve asks softly.

“I made my statement, yes. And they took my bloody clothes.”

“Did you see a medic? Why didn’t SHIELD get you to a hospital? What about your injuries?”

“The medic just left. They’ll transport me to a hospital. I might have a concussion,” Darcy explains slowly. “He- he hit-” she stammers, “he banged my head against the coffee table.”

“He did far more than that,” Steve says gently.

Darcy swallows hard and opens her mouth, but the medic arrives back before she can say anything. He’s trying to get Darcy to lie on the stretcher, but she refuses and insists that she can walk, so they accompany her while she slowly makes her way downstairs and to the ambulance.

“Where are you taking her?” Steve asks.

“Georgetown,” the medic answers.

“I’m coming with you,” Steve says in his best Captain America voice in order to justify his presence. “I’m her husband,” he adds as an afterthought realising that that’s probably a better justification.

Hospitals still make Steve deeply uncomfortable. He remembers far too acutely when he was a sick kid and marginally better-off adult and he wonders if his discomfort will ever go away. He reminds himself sternly that this is not about him, so he concentrates on Darcy and when he identifies himself as her husband, the nurse on duty makes him fill out the ER admission forms while they run tests.

He starts feeling like an imposter then because he looks at the form and realises that he doesn’t know her blood type, her health insurance information, or if she has any allergies. Things he would probably know if their marriage was real, if she wasn’t a stranger he met and married two and a half months ago. He manages to fumble his way through them and stays by Darcy’s side afterwards.

Altogether they spend several hours in the ER. Darcy feels dizzy and confused and, in the end, is diagnosed with a mild concussion. She refuses to stay in the hospital overnight.

“We’d prefer for you to stay the night for medical observation,” the doctor says.

“And I prefer not to,” Darcy tells her insistently.

The doctor looks at Steve for a moment. “We can release you into your husband’s care of course,” she says. “But you need rest, absolute rest to recover. No reading, no listening to music, no watching TV. It means no texting, no email, no phone use at all.”

Darcy looks at Steve pleadingly and he realises that she’s asking him silently to let her stay with him, but doesn’t want to mention it in front of the doctor, who has no idea their marriage is pretty unconventional; that they’re not even living together. The doctor just assumed that Steve would be there.

Steve didn’t even consider that. But it makes sense: Darcy can’t be left alone and her apartment is an active crime scene. He absolutely understands her unwillingness to stay in the hospital.

“Sure,” he says, “you can stay with me.”

~*~

It felt a little bit like prom, getting ready the next day. Well, prom with several deadly weapons tied to her body, Darcy decided. Though, to be honest, that would have made her senior prom a lot more fun.

“Can we appreciate the irony here?” Darcy said, stepping back into the room, self-consciously touching her wig. “That I’m actually wearing a wig that looks like my natural hair before this whole mess started?”

“Cosmic irony noted,” Steve said dryly. “Also, your idea, because you said that your platinum blonde made you look like a beacon.”

“It does.”

“I told you that you could’ve dyed it back,” Steve suggested.

“And dye it again tomorrow? I don’t want to put my hair through that. I don’t want us both to turn bald here. No, wigs are okay. Also, you really can’t judge my disguise,” Darcy teased, looking at him. “Your disguise are glasses and a tux.”

“And I look fabulous.” Steve grinned.

“Yeah,” Darcy gave him an appreciative nod, “you clean up nice, hubby.”

He frowned at her. “Hubby? Are we really going with that?”

“Nope, but I had to get it out there.”

“Right.” His eyes slowly travelled from Darcy’s face to her toes and back up, even slower. Darcy felt herself blushing. “Are you using the stuff we took from Natasha back in the day? The garter holsters and all that?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Darcy teased.

“Yeah, I would, because I need to know if you can defend yourself.”

“Trust me, Captain, I’m armed with more than my enchanting dry wit. I have knives strapped in places you don’t even want to think about.”

He cocked his head to one side. “Maybe I do.”

This was new, the teasing. Three days ago, they’d been at each other’s throats for a misunderstanding, something completely menial. Now they were a team of two, hunting bad guys in formal wear and completely at ease with each other. Everything developed so fast, Darcy asked herself what would happen if they stopped – or once they returned back to normal, if they could return back to normal.

“You ready?” Steve asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Yup,” Darcy nodded and grabbed her clutch. “Let’s go.”

She had their plan down to pat. They would arrive separately and keep a lookout for Jonathan Ellis. Darcy would steal his phone, hand it to Steve to make a copy and then slip it back in Ellis’ pocket. There were a few uncertainties that made Darcy a little queasy in the stomach: Jonathan Ellis could change his plans and simply not appear, he could notice his phone missing in the 90 seconds it would take them to make a copy and return it to him, he could disappear before Steve and Darcy could catch him.

And he could, apart from his illegal business dealings, be a model citizen and not have any weak spots. They needed incriminating information. They only had extortion at their disposal, and no plan B.

While their past missions had been more or less successful, Darcy was nervous now. In the past, all she basically had to do was grab the information and run. There had been no human target that would add another layer of unpredictability to it. Now she needed to factor in Jonathan Ellis’ movements and his mood. Darcy had only done this thing in theory and she’d learned at SHIELD that for this kind of op you should have three agents at least, all of them seasoned field agents.

At least Steve was a calming presence. While he had fully admitted that he was out of his depth as well since he was, after all, a soldier not a spy, he was confident in both their abilities that they’d make it. His faith in her was reassuring. Darcy doubted that she’d be ready to do this with anybody else but him.

They took a taxi to the theatre and Darcy entered while Steve waited outside, keeping a lookout for Ellis to follow him inside. Darcy made her rounds through the entrance and up the stairs, casing the entire public area. She already knew the layout by heart as well as the security at the venue. Getting access to the theatre’s security system had been easy and only taken her ten minutes yesterday.

“You know,” Darcy said, waiting in a spot that was shielded but still had a view towards the entrance, “during basic training SHIELD told us that basically half of the job is waiting and we couldn’t believe it. We’d all signed up for a life of excitement. But after 10 days: Yep, it’s true.”

“And I finally see how the other half lives,” Steve commented dryly.

“Oh, right, you’re always in the thick of it. Are you enjoying yourself?” she teased.

“Actually,” Steve said a little too chipper, “it’s kind of nice. Maybe I should spend more time at SHIELD teaching impressionable youngsters instead of going into the field.”

Darcy was silent for a moment. “You’re joking.”

“Of course I’m joking, but it’s alright. I feel a little useless though,” Steve complained good-naturedly. “You’re doing everything, the hacking and the spying. There’s no use for me here.”

“Welcome to the new world, buddy. Seriously though, while this is not your area of expertise, I’m glad that you’re with me.”

“You wouldn’t want another master spy? Like Natasha?” Steve asked.

“I don’t know since I’ve never worked with one. But I think we make a great team. And you’re not useless, you figured it all out. I did the legwork and you did the brain work.”

“Something that doesn’t very often happen to me in my job these days,” Steve threw in.

“And,” Darcy continued, “I think you’d be a great teacher.”

She could practically hear Steve frown on the other end. “Thanks?” he said a little uncertainly.

“I mean, remember how this all started? Like, in the few hours before this developed into a complete clusterfuck, you were actually a good CO on my first mission. You put me at ease, were quietly confident but not overbearing. That was nice.”

“I’ve told you before: I’ll gladly work with you again.”

“Even if you’re running backup and are not part of the action?”

“For you, my dear wife, always.”

“‘My dear wife’?” Darcy repeated, amused.

“You started it,” Steve retorted. “And I’m trying to make it sound natural for when I meet your high school nemesis. Preparation is everything.”

“I thought you always run in head first.”

“I’m a master strategist, Darcy, master strategist,” Steve shot back.

“My apologies, oh ancient one.”

“Already making fun of my age, I see.”

“I wasn’t. And didn’t expect that to be a touchy subject.”

“It isn’t,” Steve claimed.

“Whatever you say, old man.”

Steve let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Hey, you married a bright young thing old enough to be your granddaughter. Now you have to deal with the consequences.”

“You gonna sue me for everything I own during our divorce?” Steve teased.

“I’d never do that to a senior citizen!” Darcy pretended to be scandalised.

“I’d love to get into that, but we’ll have to postpone. Ellis just arrived,” Steve announced, serious once more.

“Copy that,” Darcy answered, concentrating on the entrance to the opera. A few minutes later their mark appeared. Darcy breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully he was alone. She followed his progress through the entrance hall with her eyes. When she saw Steve enter, she made her way downstairs in order to run into Ellis.

“He’s on his phone,” Steve said urgently, “you can’t take it now.”

“Shit,” Darcy swore.

“It probably won’t be long,” Steve reassured her, “he’ll be done any second now.”

“And what if he isn’t and we won’t make it before the opera starts?”

“Then we’ll improvise. But that won’t happen.”

“I guess I’ll circle the room until he’s done.”

She followed Ellis at a safe distance a few more minutes. She had no idea where Steve was, but he had assured her that he’d find her. Ellis stepped behind a pillar and when Darcy made her way there, he was gone.

“I lost track of him,” Darcy said, trying not to look around in panic because that would attract attention. “Ellis, he’s gone.”

“He’s not, I got you, turn right,” Steve instructed her calmly. “He hung up his phone, he just slipped it in his left pocket. Probably best to run into him now before he moves back into the crowd.”

“Okay.” Darcy took a deep breath in preparation. She’d pickpocket a lot of people during her youth. While she hadn’t actively pickpocketed anybody in a while, it wasn’t something she’d unlearned completely. She’d tested it with Steve over and over earlier today and she was confident in her abilities once more. She didn’t even have to bump into Ellis, passing him very closely would be enough.

She took another detour, calculating to meet Ellis at a corner where a couple of people were standing. She passed him, brushing against his shoulder. He looked at her for a second and Darcy flashed him an apologetic smile before continuing on her way. When she was almost past him, she reached two fingers into his pocket and fished out his phone. Before she knew it, Steve was coming towards her. He nodded at her, and she handed him the phone without missing a step, then she turned around to keep her eyes on Ellis.

“That worked perfectly,” Steve said almost immediately.

“Don’t count your chickens and all that,” Darcy admonished him gently. “Hopefully he won’t realise that it’s missing in the next 60 seconds. And then I also have to slip it back into his pocket.”

“I’m copying everything as fast as I can,” Steve reassured her. “Well, that palm-sized thing in my hand is.”

“Do you sometimes wonder where the Black Widow gets all her stuff from?” Darcy asked, glad to change the topic and calm her nerves. “I mean, SHIELD doesn’t know about it, right?”

“They don’t. And with Nat it’s sometimes better not to ask.”

Darcy hummed to herself.

“Okay,” Steve said, “I’m almost ready, I’ll hand it back to you in a few seconds.”

“Where are you?” Darcy asked. She’d lost track of Steve in the crowd, but she was sure that he had kept track of all their movements.

“Behind you,” he answered, “coming up to you now.”

Steve walked up to her and slipped the phone back into her hand. They walked next to each other, Steve’s arm around her waist. They approached Ellis while he was standing with his back to them and Darcy dropped the phone back into his pocket. He didn’t even seem to register it.

Darcy exhaled deeply. Steve looked down at her and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“Well done,” he told her. “That was the hardest part for tonight.”

Darcy looked up at him. “You sure? We still have to basically kidnap and blackmail him.”

“But we no longer have to sneak around. Anyway,” Steve added, looking at his watch, “you should take your seat.”

Darcy nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on Ellis and hope that he won’t slip out early.”

“I’ll dig through his phone and see if I find anything. I’ll update you during intermission.”

Darcy sat through the first half of the opera, barely registering what was going on on stage. Ellis didn’t move from his seat, he seemed enraptured with the performance.

As soon as Darcy was at a place where she could talk without being overheard, she spoke into comms. “Talk to me, Steve,” she prompted.

“Well,” Steve began hesitantly, “he has an affair.”

“Huh,” Darcy said, surprised.

“Well, not an affair per se, he’s just sleeping around and using an app to… facilitate his encounters.”

“And that’s all?” Darcy asked.

“So far yes. I haven’t managed to go through all his communication yet. And that’s just the information I found for him personally,” Steve added. “There’s obviously his work stuff, but I don’t think that’ll work as a pressure point. He knows he signed up for that. The law firm is so shady; they have their fingers in all the pies.”

“I told you we should call him ‘attorney of evil’,” Darcy pointed out.

“But I thought all lawyers were evil,” Steve shot back.

Darcy shook her head. “So you think the affairs are a pressure point?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Depends on the relationship with his wife I guess? But that’s all I have so far.”

“Let me know if you find anything else. Other than that, I’ll just wait until the show is over and follow him outside.”

“And I’ll get the car ready.”

Steve updated her sporadically throughout the performance, but he didn’t seem to find much else – other than finding out that Gibson, Ali & Ellis seemed to be the go-to law firm for organised crime. They helped setting up money laundering for arms smuggling, drug operations, sex trafficking and a lot more. Steve suggested that they take another look at the law firm once they were back stateside, and Darcy agreed.

Darcy followed closely behind Ellis after the end of the performance. Thanks to the crowd making its way to the exit, he didn’t notice anything. He was standing in front of the theatre, waiting for his car to pull up, with Darcy hovering directly behind him.

The car appeared, an attendant opened the door for Ellis to get in. Darcy stepped up to them, shoved Ellis inside, got in next to him, and closed the door behind them. It all happened within seconds. The doors locked and the car started moving.

“Hi,” Darcy simply said, smiling at him.

“What the-” Ellis stared at her in shock before turning towards the driver. “Carlos,” he called out. “Stop the car. Now.”

“Carlos was detained,” Steve said from the driver’s seat. “And we need to talk.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve is bearded, short-haired and in formal wear. If you need a visual aid… [here you go](https://img.vettri.net/img/vverwtui3latphxmeiptzvu7dwyeqnxzzb3w3rg6p4/Chris_Evans_2012-Vanity-Fair-Oscar-Party_Vettri.Net-07.jpg)


	16. Chapter 16

### Chapter 16

Jane swoops in the next day to fuss over Darcy. She throws Steve an accusatory look, like it’s entirely his fault that this happened. And per SHIELD’s official investigation it kind of is.

The conclusion is fast, especially considering how much SHIELD has been dragging their feet about the investigation into Steve’s and Darcy’s disappearance. Within 24 hours it’s been determined that a rogue splinter cell of an organisation that Steve, together with the STRIKE team, dismantled months ago wanted to take revenge on Captain America by killing his wife.

SHIELD sends an agent to Steve’s apartment to let him and Darcy know their findings. Steve is pretty sure that what he tells them isn’t true, but he keeps his mouth shut for the time being. Judging by the look that Darcy throws him while the agent in front of them goes on and on about their conclusion, she’s having similar thoughts.

He can also tell that Jane’s nearness is getting to her. Not the nearness per se, but Steve can see that Darcy has trouble keeping her suspicions from Jane. They’ve never discussed it, but by some unspoken agreement they’re keeping all that their investigation and findings to themselves. Steve knows that Darcy is close to Clint but is sure she never confided the details of their investigation in him. Natasha knows that they’re investigating and probably has some suspicions about how much they know, but Steve and Darcy have never reached out to her. So far it didn’t seem like much of a problem – they both play their cards close to their chest and their circle of friends is small – but now that Jane is so close, it’s clear that the lying by omission is weighing on Darcy.

Jane leaves after two days because she and Thor are about to set out to Patagonia. She makes Darcy promise to contact her with any developments. Like during the last expedition to the Arctic Circle, Jane will not have easy access to communication, but she can be reached if it’s urgent.

Darcy smiles, nods, hugs her one time, and then Jane is gone.

She brings up her attack that night.

“The ‘enemies of Captain America’ excuse is kind of flimsy, right?” she says, sitting in the kitchen while Steve is preparing food. He nods without turning around. “How would they know that I’m your wife? It’s not like we published an ad in the Post or something. And then they had to find out where I live… Which is decidedly not with my husband, so… why would they think I’m a worthwhile target? Everything is so random and coincidental.”

“Yeah,” Steve agrees.

“It sounds so paranoid, saying it out loud, but…” she stops for a moment. “The timing is also a little strange?”

“What do you mean?” He turns around to look at her quizzically.

“I think it has to do with the agent you recognised,” she explains. “I got attacked after we started looking into her. We weren’t even good about covering your tracks. First, I accessed her file and then you tried. That must’ve rung some alarm bells.”

“That’s entirely possible,” Steve concedes.

Darcy nods and is silent for a while.

“So what do you want to do now?” Steve finally asks.

Darcy frowns at him. “Find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Find out what happened to us and why. Like we agreed. You still in, right?”

“Yes, of course,” Steve agrees quickly. “I just wanted to check if you… if you wanted to change anything. I mean,” he takes a deep breath, “I could tell that you had trouble keeping your suspicions from Jane. You don’t have to keep her in the dark. We never said we would keep this entirely to ourselves. We can tell people.”

“Who could we tell? I mean,” Darcy looks contemplative, “it sounds ridiculous, but I’m also keeping stuff from Jane to protect her?” She gestures towards the bruises around her neck. “This is what happens when you ask too many questions.”

“But we can tell people that know how to defend themselves. We could get the other Avengers involved. Tony, Bruce… Clint and Natasha already suspect that we’re up to something anyway.”

Darcy hums in agreement. “That’s true. But that’s really pulling out the big guns.”

Now it’s Steve’s turn to gesture at her bruises. “Whoever is behind this, they’re not messing around either.”

“Yeah.”

“So, you want me to give Tony a call?” Steve offers.

“Can you just-” Darcy begins. “Can you wait a few more days?”

Steve squints at her. “Why?”

“I don’t know, I just want a few more days keeping this between ourselves.”

“You know that’s dangerous, right?” Steve points out. He doesn’t want to pressure her, but that’s also something he realised. Right now, the only people that are in the know are Darcy and him. If something happens to one of them or even both of them, their gathered knowledge will be gone. “Keeping it between two people only. If something happens to us, our research will be gone.”

“I’m keeping a record,” Darcy responds.

“You are?”

“Yup, working with Jane has taught me that. I thought I’d told you that.”

“You haven’t. But that’s good news.”

“Yeah,” Darcy manages a slight smile, “should something happen to me, I’ll definitely be sending messages from the grave.”

~*~

They transported Ellis to a motel at the edge of town where you could pay cash and the owners didn’t ask questions. Steve left Darcy alone with him while he went to ditch the car. By the time he was back at the motel room, Ellis was sitting tied to a chair in the middle of the room and stared at the floor.

“Did he say anything?” Steve asked her quietly.

Darcy shook her head no. “He seems-” she stopped herself to search for an appropriate expression, “resigned to his fate.”

Ellis looked up at both of them. “I know you’re going to kill me,” he said much to their surprise. “I’m just starting to wonder why you brought me here. Do you have orders to make it painful?”

“What?” Steve stared at him.

“Or are you going for my family first? I should’ve gotten them to safety,” he said more to himself.

“We’re not doing anything to your family,” Darcy said insistently.

“I kind of expected this… but not so soon,” he continued. “I know I’ve messed up a few things recently… Project Pegasus being the most prominent one, but I’d figure you’d give me more time to maybe fix it?”

“Project Pegasus?” Darcy repeated.

“It’s an arms smuggling thing,” Steve explained. “It’s behind schedule.”

Darcy turned her head to frown at him. “And you know that how?”

“It was on his phone,” Steve replied.

“How did you see it on my phone?” Ellis wanted to know, but they both ignored him.

“Did you see any information related to our… project?” Darcy asked.

“No, and if I did, I would’ve told you immediately.”

Darcy placed the other chair in front of Ellis and sat down. “Look, we’re not going to kill you,” she said patiently.

Ellis looked at her suspiciously.

“But we need some information from you. About the insider trading scheme you’re involved in, the tin scheme.”

Ellis just stared at her.

“We know the basics, that you need to majorly disrupt production to cause a price hike and to let the mining companies’ stock price crash. We just need to know how, when and where this is going to happen.”

Ellis squinted at her and then looked between her and Steve. “You guys are crazy. You brought me here for this? Why should I tell you?”

“Well…” Darcy began.

“We were thinking of low-key blackmailing you,” Steve provided.

“With your affairs,” Darcy added.

“Are you two amateurs?” Ellis said in disbelief. “That’s not going to get me to talk. Why not torture me for information? Or get it out of me with other means?”

“We’re the good guys,” Darcy pointed out.

“Then why not offer me safety and security? Or simply offer to save my family?”

“We can’t do that,” Steve confessed.

“You can’t?”

Before Steve could answer, there were screeching tires and three SUVs sped into the parking lot. Darcy and Ellis jumped in their seats and Steve rushed to the window. He registered two dozen operatives in tactical gear that were all heavily armed exiting the cars. They lifted their guns and opened fire.

“Down, down, down,” Steve yelled.

Darcy ducked immediately, taking Ellis, who was still tied to the chair, with her.

Steve hadn’t felt much need for his shield in the last ten days, but he missed it now, with the bullet screeching over their heads, tearing into the wall, the furniture, the fixtures. Everything around them exploded and without his shield all Steve could do was wait it out. They would have to stop eventually and send people in to see if they’d survived or not. Then he could finally overtake them all in close-quarter combat, shield or not.

“You okay?” he called out once the shooting had stopped.

“We’re fine,” Darcy yelled back from behind the bed.

The remnants of what used to be the door were kicked down and operatives entered; another group entered through the window that was. Steve kicked and punched and managed to overpower them quickly. They weren’t well-trained, he realised, just hired thugs. Darcy got up as well and managed to overpower three assailants with the knives she’d had strapped to her thighs. It was over within minutes.

“We have to leave, there are going to be more,” Steve said, looking around.

“Also the police is going to be here any second now,” Darcy added.

She knelt down and got rid of Ellis restraints. He looked around. “Shit, they’re coming after me.”

“They’re probably after us-” Steve began, but Darcy stomped on his foot, hard.

“After all of us,” she interjected. “They’re probably after all of us. But we can give you a head start.”

Steve opened his mouth to protest but Darcy shot him warning look. “If you give us what we want,” she continued.

Ellis squinted at her. “What do you mean?”

“Your days might be numbered, but they haven’t gotten you yet. We could leave you here and they’ll just have to pick you up. But we can set you free. It’ll give you enough time to save your family at least. You asked for that a few minutes ago.”

“And I just have to give you the how, the when and the where?”

Darcy nodded. “We know everything else.”

“What if I don’t know?”

“We know you do. You would’ve reacted differently when I first mentioned it.”

“I’m not going to give this up so easily,” Ellis said. “You’ll have to get me out of here first.”

Darcy looked up at Steve who nodded. “We can do that,” she promised.

They stepped over the unconscious operatives on the ground, got into one of the SUVs that were now standing abandoned in the motel parking lot and drove towards Ellis’ home.

They drove in silence while Darcy and Steve made sure that they weren’t followed. The tension in the car lessened somewhat after 15 minutes without incident. Darcy leaned over to flick a piece of debris from Steve’s tuxedo jacket. “How is it that you manage to overpower twenty or so operatives and still look completely unfazed? There’s even barely a wrinkle in your tux. I must look like a hot mess.”

Steve grinned, relaxed somewhat. “It’s a rare talent. And you look great.”

“You guys are a couple?” Ellis asked from the backseat.

Steve snorted. “Actually, we’re married.”

“Newlyweds,” Darcy added jokingly.

Steve could see Ellis staring at them through the rear-view mirror. He couldn’t quite decipher what the gaze meant. “Let me reiterate,” he finally spoke up. “You guys are crazy.”

“Well,” Darcy said conversationally, “at least we’re a team and I’m not endangering my spouse with my criminal enterprise without their knowledge.”

Ellis shut his mouth with a snap and Steve looked at Darcy in surprise. She caught his gaze and shrugged.

“I didn’t know that, okay?” Ellis began after he’d been quiet for a few minutes. “I didn’t expect that it would come to this.”

“You didn’t?” Steve couldn’t help but ask.

“When we started… it wasn’t illegal. We were operating in the grey area… using legal loopholes, making sure that people could save taxes. But we were really good at obscuring the money trail, so…”

“You didn’t expect the skillsets would attract a certain crowd?” Darcy wanted to know.

“Well… would you believe me if I said no?”

“No,” Steve answered with conviction.

“You’re only half wrong.”

They stopped at a light and Steve turned around in his seat to look at him. “Have you ever thought about the victims?” he asked. Ellis coloured and looked away but didn’t say anything.

Steve turned back around and continued driving. “Have you thought about the innocent people that were killed with the guns you helped traffic? The armed conflicts that you helped prolong? The people that died from the drugs you helped deal? The women that were trafficked and forced into prostitution thanks to the services you offered? The victims of the terrorist attacks you helped facilitate?”

“All this would’ve happened anyway,” Ellis said quietly. “I never did anything that actively lead to this.”

“Yeah, but you made a cottage industry out of helping the people that did all these crimes and worse.”

Now it was Darcy’s turn to catch his gaze and look at him in surprise. “You alright?” she asked quietly.

Steve nodded. For a moment he considered telling Darcy that he’d heard all these excuses one too many times. That people had just been following orders. That they hadn’t been aware of the far-reaching consequences of their actions. That they had never actively killed anybody. Even high-ranking Nazis during and after the war had used these empty phrases.

He had hoped that Ellis would shut up after this, but he spoke up again. “Are you against the deal your wife made?” he asked. “Protecting me in exchange for the information you need?”

“If I did, I would’ve spoken up. But no, I understand this and I’m not going to undermine her. However, we can’t protect you forever. We’re helping you, your wife and your children flee the country. Afterwards, it’s anybody’s game.”

Ellis nodded quietly. “That’s the deal.”

~*~

Darcy is shaken. It’s hard not to notice it. Though she insists that she’s fine, she’s nervous and easy to startle. Her apartment is cleared a few days after the attack, but she makes no mention of wanting to go back there. Steve doesn’t mind; she can stay with him as long as she needs. And it means he can keep a close eye on her.

He’s requests to be put on a lighter schedule and, to his surprise, SHIELD plays ball. He feels a little weird using Darcy as a reason for it, but he’s also genuinely worried about her. Steve still goes on the occasional high-profile mission, but the constant, around-the-clock availability for missions in any part of the globe is, for a while at least, no longer part of his schedule.

He returns home from his latest training session a few days after Darcy’s attack and finds the apartment quiet. He thinks that maybe it’s empty and that Darcy has gone out, but he calls out for her in any case. There’s a muffled hello from her room – the door is closed.

Steve goes through the usual motions when he returns from work, he hangs up his shield, he prepares dinner. Usually Darcy joins him, but tonight her door remains locked.

Steve calls out that dinner is ready, but Darcy doesn’t come out of her room. Steve gives her another hour, but then decides to go find out what's happening. He knocks at the door first, but there’s no answer. When he slowly opens it, he sees Darcy sitting on the floor, her back against the wall, her legs hugged to her chest.

“Darcy,” he says gently.

She looks up at him. “Hey Steve,” she says.

Steve steps into the room and sits down next to her. They’re quiet for a while.

“You alright?” he finally asks.

Darcy nods. “Yeah, just thinking.”

Steve doesn’t say anything in return. He isn’t quite sure what to do. She hasn’t told him to leave, so he simply stays.

“I killed a man,” Darcy finally whispers.

Steve glances at her sideways, but Darcy looks resolutely ahead. “Yes,” he simply says.

“I killed a person,” Darcy repeats.

“Yup. But he wasn’t a very nice person,” Steve adds. “He tried to kill you first.”

That’s all it takes for Darcy to crumble. She bursts into tears and Steve gathers her up in his arms.

“I almost died,” she says between sobs.

“Yes.”

“And I killed a person.”

Steve doesn’t answer, he just waits until Darcy’s tears subside.

After ten minutes, Darcy straightens and wipes her eyes. “This is so fucked up.”

“It is. But your reaction is normal. As clichéd as it sounds: You don’t forget your first kill.”

Darcy laughs humourlessly. “Do you think maybe I did? I could’ve done anything in those two weeks.”

“Well, if you did,” Steve says slowly, “I’m sure there were extenuating circumstances too. It’s not like you’d straight up murder a guy in cold blood.”

“What was yours?” Darcy asks abruptly. “Your first kill,” she clarifies, when she sees Steve’s questioning gaze.

“A soldier at Hydra facility in Austria,” Steve explains hesitantly, “close to Kitzbühl. I’d gone to save Bucky, to save the 107th. I had made it into the facility, freed most of the men and was on my way to find him, at an isolation ward in another part of the factory. I was just punching and kicking people; I wasn’t comfortable or quick enough with a gun. I was running up the stairs and there was this soldier… I kicked him and he fell over the railing, down onto the factory floor… and he didn’t get up again.” Steve stops for a moment. “I didn’t have time to register it really, there wasn’t enough time, just shock, but yeah… when I finally realised it…” he trails off.

“But that’s different. There was a war going on.”

“Still. You don’t forget. I try not to think about the body count, there were so many after that, but the first…”

“Maybe I’m not made to be a field agent after all,” Darcy says quietly, “if I react this way.”

“No,” Steve disagrees immediately, “being human, retaining your humanity, that’s what divides the good from the bad guys.”

Darcy sighs, scoots closer, and puts her head on Steve’s shoulder. They sit, just like that, while it grows dark outside.

“Can we take a walk?” Darcy asks.

Steve looks at her questioningly for a moment. “Sure.”

They head outside and amble along the streets in the neighbourhood for a while.

“Is anything the matter?” Steve asks. He thinks that maybe Darcy wanted to leave the confines of the apartment because she had some new information and was – despite all their efforts – afraid of being overheard

“Sorry, it’s nothing, I just wanted to get outside.”

“Okay.”

“Walking around in the dark is soothing somehow. I first noticed this when I started working with Jane. It’s sad that I can’t do this more often,” Darcy says contemplatively.

“I do this all the-” Steve begins but then sees the fault in his logic. “Right, you’re a woman.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re also a highly trained SHIELD agent though,” he adds. “You can handle everything that gets thrown at you or might lurk in dark corners.”

Darcy huffs out a laugh. “Thanks.”

They walk in silence for a few blocks.

“Thanks for being so understanding,” Darcy finally says.

“It’s alright,” Steve tries to shrug it off. “Remember when I was in such a funk a few weeks back? You humoured me then too.”

“That was nothing.”

“It sure was something,” Steve argues. “And remember, you told me to go see a therapist. Do I need to give the same advice to you?”

Darcy shakes her head. “No… well, maybe. It’s sound advice. But you still haven’t gone,” she admonishes him quietly.

“I know.” Steve admits. “But I will. Once things are back to normal.”

“Do you think maybe we’re kidding ourselves?” Darcy asks wistfully. “With thinking that things will ever go back to normal?” she adds when she sees Steve’s questioning gaze. “What if things never go back to normal? What if we never find out? Thing certainly can’t go back to how they were before. I have the scars to prove it.”

Steve thinks for a long moment. “I certainly know that certain situations are impossible to reverse,” he acknowledges quietly.

“So what do we do then?” Darcy asks. “How do you manage?”

Steve shrugs. “Like I told you: I just roll with the punches.”

“But we’re not gonna stay married forever,” Darcy decides.

“Was that ever an option?” Steve asks, curious.

“No, but I feel…” Darcy trails off and is silent for a long moment. “Maybe we should set a deadline. If we don’t know by… let’s say the end of July, we’ll get the divorce and move on. No hard feelings.”

“No hard feelings?” Steve repeats.

“Just…” Darcy shrugs, “you know. These are extraordinary circumstances and maybe we’ve done or are doing things that aren’t normal for us. I won’t hold anything you did against you and you do the same. And once we get divorced, it’s all water under the bridge. No hard feelings. A clean slate.”

Steve squints at her. That’s not what he expected at all and he doesn’t think that it’s going to work out anyway. “I think you make it sound too easy. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Actions have consequences. And in any case, a clean slate is ridiculous. I’d like to at least remain friends with you.”

Darcy sighs deeply. Steve stares at her, but she doesn’t say anything further.

“What is this really about?” he finally asks. “This is so weird, coming from you.”

“Oh, it’s just… I don’t know, just… protective measures. I just…” Darcy visibly struggles to put her thoughts into words. “I’m trying to cover my bases, I guess. Whatever happens, if we find out… if we find out we did something horrible… if we never find out… We’ll put it behind us and move on. You’ll be alright, I’ll be alright… and we don’t read anything into our behaviour.”

“I think,” Steve says slowly, “we should just wait and see. A deadline is a good idea. But if we don’t know anything in a few weeks, we’ll see what we can do. We don’t have to make any promises. Whatever happens, we’ll be alright.”

~*~

Steve stopped in front of the departure hall and Darcy ushered Ellis, his wife, and children out of the car. Mrs. Ellis stared at Darcy and Steve for a moment, still too confused to form words. The two eldest children looked around, sleepy-eyed and dishevelled, because they’d been woken up in the middle of the night. The smallest one had thankfully fallen asleep during the car ride that had taken them from the Ellis family home to the airport.

They were only carrying the bare necessities and the fake passports that Ellis had taken from his safe at home. Darcy had booked them onto the next available flight, which would take them to Fort Lauderdale. From there they’d have to fend for themselves. Ellis had assured them that money wouldn’t be a problem and that he’d established safety precautions long ago.

Ellis stood next to Darcy and Steve and watched his family go safely through security before he turned around and looked between the two of them. “Huanuni, three days from now. They’re going to blow it up. It’ll be closed for months.”

“Thank you,” Darcy simply said. “Now get out of here.”

They waited a moment longer for Ellis to make it through security, before turning around head back to their car, which they ditched at an abandoned parking lot. They walked towards the main street in hopes of catching a taxi back to their hotel.

“Where is Huanuni even?” Steve asked.

Darcy looked up from the burner phone in her hands. “Bolivia. I just googled.”

“When’s the next flight to La Paz leaving?”

“In a few hours,” Darcy said. “We’ll have plenty of time to pack and strategize. And to change,” she added, grimacing. “My feet are starting to kill me.”

“And you were so excited about formal wear,” Steve teased.

“It always looks good in movies!”

The attack came out of nowhere when they passed a side street, giving Steve only a split second to react and to push Darcy out of the way. The bullet missed her by less than an inch. Steve easily dodged further bullets and managed to overpower the assailants coming at him. Behind him, he could hear Darcy getting in on the action as well.

It took Steve less than a minute to overpower them all. Then he wheeled around to see if Darcy needed support. She was standing, knife in hand, with two unconscious operatives on the ground next to her. She was breathing hard and looking at him in shock.

Steve barely had time to notice the growing bloodstain on her right side before she sagged against the closest wall and slid to the ground.


	17. Chapter 17

### Chapter 17

Darcy insists on returning to work as soon as possible. She can tell that Steve doesn’t like it, but he doesn’t try to dissuade her. The moment the doctor clears her, ten days after her attack, she’s back at her desk. The choke marks are still visible around her neck – now in a yellow-greenish colour – but her concussion is healed and she feels strong enough to return.

When her supervisor, Agent Franklin, calls her into her office a few hours later, Darcy is poised for a fight. She might not like her desk job very much, but she also doesn’t want to mope around alone in Steve’s apartment any longer.

“We will return you to active duty,” Agent Franklin says.

“What?” Darcy’s mouth falls open. She’d already made her peace with the fact that she probably wouldn’t take an active part in dismantling the arms smuggling network. They’re closing in on the major players and it will only take a few more weeks.

“That… unfortunate incident,” she looks at the choke marks on Darcy’s neck, “is a minor setback, but you’re a field agent and you should get ready to return to the field – if that’s still what you want.”

Darcy blinks. “Oh. Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I mean, yes,” Darcy hastens to assure her, “of course I want to return to the field… this is just… surprising.”

“I thought you made it clear to Assistant Director Hill that this would only be temporary.”

“I did, yes…”

“And you’ve already started physical training once more to get fighting fit.”

Darcy nods.

“Of course it is going to be dangerous,” Agent Franklin says, “accidents happen during field work. And this time you won’t have your husband by your side.”

Darcy frowns at her but doesn’t say anything.

“But you can always walk back on your earlier statements,” she offers. “If you no longer feel like you’re up for field work, we’ll be glad to find another challenging position for you.”

“No,” Darcy says, “I want to return. Really, I do. It’s just so sudden.”

“Not really. It’s not like we’re sending you out tomorrow. You’ll need to get recertified with your weapon and you’ll have to pass a physical evaluation.”

Darcy nods. “Okay.”

“Like I said, we don’t want anything happen to you in the field simply because you’re not ready.”

Darcy squints at her.

“But you should be able to take down Project Pegasus from the field, not from your desk.”

“Okay.”

Agent Franklin gives Darcy all the necessary information before letting her return to her desk. Darcy is still mulling over her words when she meets Sharon on her way home. The latter is just stepping out of her apartment, in her scrubs, and almost runs into her. Steve’s been gone on back-to-back missions for four days and Darcy hasn’t seen Sharon for a while either. Darcy asks herself if Sharon lives in the neighbouring apartment full time or just during the time her mark is home as well.

Sharon looks at Darcy and visibly flinches when she sees the marks on her neck. Darcy lifts one eyebrow, surprised by her reaction. She thought that Sharon would’ve been briefed about her assault and her recent move into Steve’s place. They hadn’t really made a secret out of it.

“Are those– are those choke marks?” Sharon asks quietly.

“Yes,” Darcy says casually, “I got attacked at home by an unknown assailant.”

Sharon looks relieved for a moment. “So I don’t need to have a conversation with you about domestic violence?” She’s only half joking.

Darcy is taken aback for a second, because she hadn’t even thought of that.

“Because soldiers returning home from war, with untreated PTSD, have done far worse things.”

“It wasn’t Steve. But thanks for checking.”

Sharon nods curtly. “Anytime.”

Darcy walks past her towards the apartment door, when Sharon puts a hand on Darcy’s arm and holds her back. Darcy turns around and sees her taking her keys out of her scrubs and twisting the head of her moose keychain.

“Darcy,” she says urgently, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but whatever you’re doing: Be careful. People have started to ask questions. I’d be prepared and make sure that nobody is… interfering.”

Darcy nods in understanding. Sharon is already at the landing of the stairs to walk down, when Darcy calls her back.

“Kate?” Sharon turns around and twists the moose’s head once more. “You know,” Darcy continues, “when I first met you, when you accidentally ran into me and Steve here in the hallway right at the beginning and you introduced yourself as Kate – was that really an accident?”

A small smile creeps onto Sharon’s face. “You’re a smart person and a great agent, Darcy. You’ll figure it out.”

The first thing Darcy does back in the apartment is to check if the hacking of the bugs is still sound. She’s standing on a chair in Steve’s bedroom to check the one in his overhead light, when she hears his keys in the lock and then the door open.

“Darcy?” he calls out.

“In here,” she answers loudly.

“So I kind of used you as an excuse today,” Steve begins talking loudly, first walking into the kitchen to grab something from the fridge, and then in her direction. “Turns out, SHIELD actually values work-life balance and it makes a difference when you decline a mid-level mission because you haven’t seen your wife in four days. I’m sure Nat-” he stops abruptly when he sees what Darcy is doing.

“Is going to have a field day when she hears,” Darcy finishes for him.

“Yeah.” He stares up at her questioningly. “Safe?” he mouths to which Darcy shrugs.

It takes another hour or so to check all the bugs and to make sure that there are no new ones, during which Steve and Darcy make mindless small talk about their work and their day and Steve prepares dinner with what’s left in the fridge.

“What made you do that?” Steve asks once Darcy is done with the inspection and they’re sure they can talk without being overheard.

Darcy’s had time to come up with an answer that will not implicate Sharon, so she casually says, “In the words of the formidable Alastor Moody: constant vigilance.”

“That was Barty Crouch Jr. though,” Steve argues. “The real Alastor Moody never said it.”

Darcy stares at him in surprise for a moment because she hadn’t expected that particular answer. “Nerd,” she tells him, grinning and shaking her head.

“Takes one to know one.”

“But seriously,” Darcy says, “I don’t know, better make sure… and I had a weird encounter with my supervisor today.”

“How so?”

“They’re putting me back on active duty. I have to do a physical and get recertified on the gun range, but that should be fairly easy. They really want me back in the field it seems.”

“I thought you were looking forward to it?” Steve asks. “You don’t like your desk job.”

“I really don’t… well, I don’t mind so much with this one, I get other stuff done, but…” Darcy shrugs.

Steve just looks at her questioningly.

“It’s just the timing,” Darcy says. “It’s ridiculous.” She tries to wave it off.

“It’s not,” Steve immediately objects, motioning her to continue.

“It’s just… I just survived an actual attempt on my life and now SHIELD is sending me back into the field…” she takes a deep breath. “Just… it sounds crazy, but… they can kill me there without any questions. Accidents happen every day.”

“They won’t do that.”

“You sure?”

“They can’t do that,” he says earnestly.

Darcy still looks doubtful.

“Also,” Steve adds lightly, in an obvious effort to cheer her up. “You’re married to me; your death would raise questions. And in any case, I would avenge you.” He grins.

Darcy’s entire face falls and she stares at him.

“What?” Steve frowns at her, a little worried. “Too dark? Too much boilerplate action movie where you have to hurt a woman first to give the male hero a motivation?”

“No, I’m still stuck on the first part… You know, that could be it. The reason.”

“What reason?”

“Why we got married.”

“So that your death would raise questions?” Steve clarifies. “That sounds really morbid.”

“Not death, per se, but we were desperate and on our own. Out of the two of us, I was the weak link. Remember what we said when we got the divorce papers and decided not to sign them? Marriage is a form of protection.”

“Very true,” Steve agrees slowly.

“You were and are protected by your status as Captain America, national icon. I was a nobody.”

Steve opens his mouth to protest.

“I know, I have Thor and Jane and a couple of others,” Darcy pre-empts him. “But still, they can’t make Captain America disappear – nor his wife, especially not days after their wedding. Maybe that’s why we were so diligent with the paper trail. We wanted people to know that I was linked to you so that if anything happened to me, it would raise questions.”

“I mean,” Steve says pensively, “we practically made sure that half of SHIELD knew.”

“Yup.” Darcy nods.

“It’s very…” Steve begins. “It sounds a lot like a historic romance novel. Like the stuff we read during the war.”

Darcy frowns at him, thrown by this tidbit. “What?”

“During the war, the army supplied us with books to, you know, have some form of entertainment while at the front,” Steve explains. “We loved them. We read a lot of stuff like _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_ and _Chicken Every Sunday_ and _Forever Amber_ and all that. Well, they had Shakespeare and Dickens, too, but those weren’t that popular.”

“You guys basically read chick lit?” Darcy stares at him in disbelief.

“Not what it was known by back then, also… many of the romance novels they printed had steamy sex scenes in them.”

Darcy blinks at him in surprise.

“You wouldn’t believe it,” Steve continues with a wistful smile. “Dum Dum even wrote to the publisher once to request that they send more stuff like Strange Fruit – the book by Lillian Smith – because it had so many sex scenes.”

Darcy starts giggling picturing this and Steve grins at her. “Why do they never tell us about that part of the war?”

Steve shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe the US government didn’t want you to know how many trashy romance novels hard-boiled GIs were reading in the field?”

“Probably.”

“Anyway,” Steve continues, “there was one book, _Her Forbidden Kingdom_ , a piece of historic fiction… well, it probably wasn’t that historically accurate, where one prince marries the beautiful, feisty, spunky princess from a neighbouring kingdom for her protection when her kingdom gets overrun by her enemies.”

“And let me guess,” Darcy says, highly amused, “the princess at first wasn’t having it but agreed to the marriage of convenience for the lack of other options and then they fell in love and defeated her enemies and united the two kingdoms and all that jazz.”

Steve smiles broadly. “Of course.”

“And lots of steamy sex.”

“Yup.”

Darcy shakes her head, laughing. “So back to our original topic: You’re essentially saying this whole marriage thing might’ve been your idea? Inspired by a bodice ripper you read back in the 1940s? Which was provided by the US military?”

“Maybe,” Steve shrugs. “Like you said, marriage is a form of protection. One of us must’ve come up with that concept.”

“Now I can’t wait for you to remember that particular episode,” Darcy tells him.

“Who knows, maybe this will be your first memory.”

~*~

Darcy sagged down to the ground, took a gulping breath and covered her bleeding wound with her hands. She felt sick and started shaking. The adrenaline was starting to wear off and shock was setting in.

Steve was by her side within seconds. “Hey,” he said, “you have to get up.”

“My legs feel like jello.”

“We have to get out of here, you need to move.” He pulled her up from the ground and steadied her with one hand at her hip. He took a cursory glance at her injury, before shrugging out of his jacket to hand it to her.

“Wear this, it’ll cover the wound and the blood.”

Steve started walking, with Darcy leaning on him heavily. “Don’t you get that?” Darcy asked distractedly. “The adrenaline rush? Are you used to it by now?”

“That,” Steve answered curtly, taking in their surroundings to make sure that no more surprises lay in wait, “and my body is the perfect fighting machine. It takes a lot for stuff to actually register.”

“So what do you do?”

“Jumping out of airplanes without a parachute for once. I own a motorcycle which I drive to maximum speed every now and then.”

“Figures.”

He looked down at her in concern. Darcy had put her hand onto her stab wound. It was still bleeding, staining Steve’s formerly pristine jacket.

“Do you think they’re all going to die?” she asked.

“Who?”

“Mrs. Ellis and the children. Do you think they’ll die?”

“No,” Steve said firmly.

“Do you really mean that?”

Steve nodded. “I do. Ellis is a dick but he seemed to care for his family. He’ll make sure that they’ll be safe.”

“So you don’t think we sentenced them to death? By kidnapping Jonathan Ellis? By dragging him into… whatever we’re doing.”

“No, we didn’t. Ellis seemed to think that his days were numbered anyway; that he was on somebody’s hit list already.”

“Still… The children were so young…” she trailed off. “Why doesn’t SHIELD teach us this?” she said after a moment. “They’re always saying that we’re the good guys and all that. They don’t teach you about the collateral damage.”

“Yeah, I don’t know. In our job, it’s important to know that you can’t save everybody. And that sometimes your choice will weigh you down.”

“Yeah,” Darcy agreed quietly.

Steve finally managed to flag down a taxi and got in behind Darcy. They made it to the hotel and Steve helped Darcy out of the car. He looked at her, concerned. “Are you okay?” he whispered urgently while they made their way through the lobby.

“Oh, it’s just a stab wound,” Darcy tried to joke but it sounded hollow. “Goes well with the bullet wound from a few days ago.”

Steve silently shook his head. The elevator was thankfully empty and Darcy sagged against the wall, but managed to remain on her feet. They made it to their room and as soon as they were inside, Darcy collapsed onto the next available chair, clutching her right side. She groaned in pain. Thankfully she was no longer bleeding that heavily, but the pain was still excruciating.

“There’s an-”

“Emergency kit in your bag, I know,” Steve finished the sentence for her.

“Towels,” Darcy said, “get some towels. I really don’t want to bleed all over the carpet.”

“You’ll have a compress in just a second,” Steve said from the other side of the room, while he rummaged through her bag to find the kit, which he then handed to her.

Darcy hissed when she added pressure to the wound. “Please tell me that we have some local anaesthesia in the kit.”

He grimaced. “We don’t.”

“Then I’ll need some whiskey from the minibar. Because I really don’t want to feel every single one of your uneven stitches.”

“The cut hurts worse than me poking the needle through the skin,” Steve pointed out.

“Not helping,” Darcy countered through clenched teeth. “Just give me some damn alcohol.”

Steve handed her a glass of whiskey, which Darcy downed in one go. He put all the medical supplies on the table and moved a chair to sit right in front of her.

He took a deep breath. “That dress is ruined anyway,” he muttered more to himself before ripping the top part right in half.

Darcy squeaked and looked at him in surprise, forgetting the pain for one second and realising the ridicule of their situation. “Geez, if I’d known you’d do that, I would’ve worn my sexy bra,” she tried to joke.

He frowned at her. “I need access to the wound,” he explained matter-of-factly, while moving the ruined dress out of the way. “You should take away your hand so I can start cleaning the wound.”

He put on the surgical gloves and got to work.

It was an odd situation. She was half-naked from her hips up, sitting in front of him, watching him closely. Steve was still in formal wear, bow tie around his neck, his dress shirt pristinely white. In his hurry to tend to her he hadn’t even gotten rid of his fake glasses. His brow was furrowed in concentration and he seemed oblivious to her occasional hissing at the burning sensation first from cleaning the wound and then from applying sutures.

He was done after a few minutes. He put a bandage on the wound and got rid of the latex gloves before he examined the bandage once more, carefully running along the edges with his index finger.

The mood suddenly changed when his hand didn’t leave her hip. It was warm and rough. He stared into Darcy’s eyes for a moment, before they moved to and lingered on the scar on her shoulder, where he had awkwardly stitched her up less than a week ago.

It felt ages ago, like another lifetime.

Steve cleared his throat. “All patched up,” he said huskily, but didn’t move. “It’s not pretty, so you’ll probably have another scar to match your adventures.”

“If I make it out alive,” Darcy pointed out.

“You know that I’ll protect you,” Steve said, staring straight at her.

Darcy swallowed hard. “I know,” she nodded.

Steve absentmindedly traced circles on her skin with his thumb and leaned slightly forward.

“You know,” Darcy breathed, “the last time you patched me up, you offered to marry me. I’m trying to think of another reckless thing we can do now.”

“We already defied the government and are fugitives on the run. There aren’t really that many idiotic things left to do.”

“Maybe there are,” Darcy stated before she moved to cup the back of his neck to pull him closer.

Steve looked startled for a moment, then his gaze fell to her lips. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” Darcy said before putting her palm on Steve’s thigh to lean up and kiss him.

The kiss was sharp and fast. Darcy ran her tongue around his bottom lip, biting it. Steve groaned and opened his mouth, deepening the kiss. Darcy palmed the back of his head and Steve slipped one hand around her body, pulling her closer, while the other moved up her back, letting it rest on her neck for a moment before his fingers threaded through the pinned-up hair beneath her wig, pushing it slightly askew.

Darcy sucked his bottom lip into her mouth before she pulled away suddenly.

Steve resisted for a moment, leaning in further, chasing their kiss, but then stopped and stared straight into her eyes. He rested his hand on her shoulder, his thumb moving along her bra strap and for a moment they just breathed softly, their foreheads pressed together. Darcy softly swept her thumb over his cheekbone and before moving her hands up to get rid of the bobby pins and to remove her wig, which she let fall to the ground.

“Another reckless thing we might want to explore if we make it out alive,” Darcy whispered before putting more space between them.

Steve levelled a challenging gaze at her and for a moment Darcy thought that he would contradict her and ask why they didn’t explore whatever was between them right now. She couldn’t come up with a single reason to not go down that road. They had chemistry, they were on the run together, they were partners in crime, they could find solace with each other, let off some steam, get rid of some of the tension that had definitely built up in the past few days.

And they were married.

But it was reckless and dangerous. They had a mission to finish and a terrorist plot to thwart and after all that they’d need to unravel the whole mess their life had become in the last two weeks. They should act on whatever they had between them when all other things were back to normal, then they’d see if whatever was between them still made sense.

Steve took a deep breath, then straightened, undid his bow tie, took off his glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He moved to tidy up the medical supplies. “Yes, we should explore that,” he simply said. “At some point.”

“No hard feelings?” Darcy asked.

He turned around to look at her once more. “I’ll still respect you in the morning, Darcy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course Steve would be a Potterhead. Don’t fight me on this ;-)
> 
> The whole exchange about what Steve read during the war: Actually historically correct. During the war, the US Government supplied the soldiers oversees with “Armed Services Editions”, basically a precursor to the modern paperback. There is an absolutely delightful book about what US soldiers read during WWII called “When Books Went to War”. Highly recommended. It was one of the best books I read last year. One of my major takeaways from the book: Soldiers read a lot of what is today considered chick lit. _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_ , _Chicken Every Sunday_ , _Strange Fruit_ , and _Forever Amber_ are all real novels that were hugely popular with US soldiers. Lillian Smith and her publishers did indeed get letters from her male readers telling them how much they enjoyed the smut. :D
> 
> The bodice ripper, _Her Forbidden Kingdom_ , that Steve mentions, sadly, is not real. Em_Jaye came up with the title. Check out her [Just One Thing I Need](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8881324) if you want to read more about Steve’s scandalous preference for low brow literature ;-)


	18. Chapter 18

### Chapter 18

“Hey Darcy, I have some information you might be interest-” her co-worker Andrea steps into Darcy’s office and stops short when she sees Steve sitting there too.

He stops by her office regularly now. He started when she returned to work after her attack and Darcy knows that he was trying to make sure that she’s alright, but by now it’s become a bit of a habit – if a habit can form in one week. He’s mostly quiet, working on whatever he has to do at SHIELD or even occasionally using his sketchbook. Sometimes he stops by during lunch break and they head down to the cafeteria together; the two of them appearing together still turns heads and leads to whispers. Sometimes, he’s just waiting for her to finish up work so they can head out together. It’s all strangely domestic.

He hasn’t met a lot of her co-workers, just two or three, but he takes the adoration and disbelief caused by his presence with good humour.

“The information I might be interested in?” Darcy prompts, when Andrea doesn’t continue talking after a few seconds.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she blushes, “I was just-”

“Distracted by Captain America’s presence, I get that,” Darcy finishes for her.

“It’s alright,” Steve chimes in; it’s their usual spiel now. “The first time Darcy met me, she walked backwards out of the room.”

“Oh, wow,” Andrea breathes, fascinated. She stares between the two of them a few seconds longer and just as Darcy wants to ask her again why she’s here, she catches herself and remembers what she wants to talk about to begin with.

“I found some information on Jonathan Ellis.” She hands the tablet she was holding to Darcy, who looks at it for a moment.

“Jonathan Ellis, who’s he again?” Darcy asks.

“The lawyer, had his fingers in all the pies? You called him ‘attorney of evil’.”

“But I thought all lawyers were evil,” Steve chimes in, leading Darcy to glare at him.

“I keep asking myself why you’re so interested in him.”

Darcy shrugs. “Gut feeling.”

“Anyway,” Andrea continues, “we found him, or rather his mutilated body, a couple of days ago, swimming in a river in southern France.”

Darcy looks down at the open file on the tablet, where she can see the pictures of that in all their disgusting glory. “So they finally caught up with him,” she says more to herself. “Anything about his family? The wife and the kids?”

Andrea shakes her head. “No sign of them. But I thought they weren’t persons of interest.”

“They aren’t. I was just making sure we weren’t dealing with a family massacre. If somebody made an example out of him and his family, it might indicate some shakeup, some power play.”

“We’ll keep an eye on it,” Andrea promises. She turns around, but then stops and addresses Steve. “Captain, it was an honour to meet you.”

“Thanks,” he answers, “it was nice meeting you too. And don’t mind me, I’m just hanging out around here a lot.”

“Yeah,” Darcy teases, “today he’s just pressuring me to finish my work so we can get out of here.”

“Oh, date night?”

“Yes,” Steve says with a grin at the same time Darcy answers with “not really.”

Andrea looks confused for a moment, but decides not to say anything and leaves.

Darcy peruses the file in front of her for a while longer. Somehow she already knew that Jonathan Ellis was dead. She’s still not sure why she’s so interested in him, but when his name first came up in connection with Project Pegasus, she had the eerie feeling that he might be valuable. He might just have been the lawyer, but further digging from Darcy had revealed that he was a key person of interest; that he was the one who made sure that all the money made its way across the globe essentially undetected. He had mysteriously disappeared without a trace in mid-February. When Darcy had tried to dig deeper but hadn’t managed to find anything of value, her supervisor had put a stop to that angle of research and assigned Darcy a new role before she could go too far down that rabbit hole.

Darcy looks down at the file again. This still feels weird, but she can’t put a finger on it. She sighs.

“You okay?” Steve asks, interrupting her reverie.

Darcy looks up at him. “Yup, I’ll grab my stuff and then we can go.”

~*~

They didn’t stay at the hotel, the risk was too high. They got changed, packed up their things with practiced ease, checked out, and made it to another hotel close to the airport to fly out to La Paz first thing in the morning.

Steve looked at Darcy, who was bent over the computer, compiling all she could find about the Huanuni mine. Occasionally, she winced when she moved, because her injury would hurt.

Steve thought things would be weird after their kiss, but they both interacted as if nothing had happened. Their rapport and teamwork was unchanged. But now there was possibility. It was good that hadn’t had sex, that they hadn’t gone that far. It was stupid and far too dangerous to get entangled now, but Steve couldn’t help but think about their time after all this, after the villains were apprehended, their names were cleared and they were back in DC. He could ask Darcy out, he thought, have coffee, get to know her for real. He really liked the idea.

He couldn’t help but wonder what had happened if he’d met Darcy under different circumstances, or even if their mission had gone perfectly. He would probably have dismissed her outright and/or he would never have seen her again.

“So,” Darcy leaned back in her chair, winced and placed her hand on her hip for a moment.

“So,” Steve echoed. “Bolivia, huh? I hadn’t really considered it to have world-class significance. All our focus was on the DRC and neighbouring countries.”

“I just read that it, the Huanuni mine, has the world’s richest cassiterite deposit.”

Steve hummed in acknowledgement.

“And I’m kind of glad we don’t have to figure out how to make our way into the DRC and an actual conflict zone within the next 24 hours,” Darcy continued.

“So, what do we know about the mine other than that it’s in Bolivia and a worthwhile target?” Steve asked.

“I only have images from Google Earth, but it doesn’t look like it’s well guarded.” Darcy turned the computer around to show him. “Look how close the mine is to the town,” she pointed out.

“If they succeed in blowing it up, there will be countless civilian casualties,” Steve finished her thought for her.

“Yeah.”

“Who operates it?” Steve asked. “Maybe we can contact them to warn them about the impending attack.”

“It’s state-owned,” Darcy provided.

“Do you think there’s also a political motive?”

Darcy shrugged. “Who knows? But motive is not really the problem here. The question is how do we make sure their plan won’t happen?”

Steve thought for a moment. “I mean, they’re state-owned,” he began slowly, “the government has a vested interest in not having the mining operations disrupted.”

“But we can’t just go ahead and… I don’t know, give them a call, drop by the mining ministry or something,” Darcy countered. “Just telling them… telling anybody on the outside what we’ve been doing and what we know… it’s going to make us sound like crazy persons. We don’t have enough hard evidence.”

“True,” Steve nodded. “And explaining all of it would take too long.”

“Yep. And who’s to say that they won’t rat us out? I mean, even inadvertently?” Darcy added. “They check in with US authorities for our background, which will ping SHIELD. And we know that whoever at SHIELD is involved in this, is well connected. So they’ll get wind of it, will find out where we are and we’re done for.”

“But we need help,” Steve pointed out, “we can’t do anything just on our own, just the two of us.”

“Yeah, and they have millions riding on it,” Darcy added. “They need the success. We basically need an entire army to stop them.”

“Not necessarily,” Steve disagreed. “I’d only take a small group. Stealth is key here. But yeah, an army would be nice nonetheless. Stationing a few more guards at the entrance is not going to cut it.”

Darcy let out a long sigh, then looked up at Steve. “Do you have a plan?”

“Not yet.”

They both sat back and thought for a minute. “I mean-” Darcy began after a few minutes before stopping herself.

“What?” Steve prompted.

Darcy took a deep breath. “We could just do it ourselves-”

“What?!”

“I mean, _pretend_ to do it ourselves,” Darcy rushed to explain, “ _pretend_ attack the mine.”

“Because in the aftermath of an attack,” Steve said when he realised what Darcy was getting at, “the security precautions always get dialled up to 11.”

“Yeah. It’ll ring all the alarm bells. They’ll have to do something.”

“If we’re lucky they’ll even bring in the military,” Steve continued, “since it’s state-owned and all.”

Darcy nodded.

Steve thought for a moment. It was a crazy, stupid idea – but it was the only idea they had, and it was so crazy that it might just work.

“So what were you thinking?” Steve asked.

“I don’t know. Buy some household chemicals and find out on the internet how to make an explosive out of it? And then blow up some minor building.”

“They can’t help _but_ alert the authorities,” Steve agreed.

“I mean, it’s a slippery slope. It has to look like a dangerous attack, not like it’s been caused by an accident or some basically harmless crazies, but at the same time we really don’t want to cause major destruction and do the work for the bad guys,” Darcy pointed out. “That’s difficult to achieve.”

“One of us should get caught,” Steve suggested.

“What?”

“And then let it slip in the interrogation that we’re just the first of many and that our friends will be here within hours,” Steve added. “That’ll certainly speed things along.”

Darcy stared at him for a moment. “Let’s be real here. We both know that it’s me who’s going to get ‘captured’. One, I’m the better undercover agent and two, once they find out who you are, it’s going to make international headlines.”

“I’ll break you out,” Steve promised, grinning at her. “I’ve done it before.”

“So we’re really doing this?” Darcy asked.

“We’re doing this,” Steve confirmed. “We’ll hammer out the details on the flight to La Paz.”

~*~

Steve squints at the surveillance video in front of him. The quality is atrocious, but it’s the best they have – or rather the only they have. Darcy has finally managed to pull the surveillance for all the places they know they stayed at and they’re reviewing it together, forgoing Darcy running facial recognition on it at work because it would lead to too many questions from their superiors. They’ve decided to divide and conquer. Darcy is looking through all the CCTV in London, while Steve reviews the tapes of most of their Caribbean and then Panamanian adventure on his laptop. So far Darcy hasn’t found anything and Steve’s only seen glimpses of them, in the corner of a random camera at the Jamaican airport, for example. Steve hasn’t done much of surveillance review, he always gets the surveillance info he needs for his missions presented to him, and reviewing hours of them without finding anything is incredibly tedious. He has a new appreciation for all the analysts working in the background.

He’s now looking at the surveillance tapes of one of the hotels they stayed at in Panama City, hoping that he can track their movements somehow.

He pauses when he sees two figures entering the hotel and looks at it. It’s him and Darcy. Behind them is a bellhop, carrying their luggage.

“We definitely stayed at the one hotel in Panama where you tracked two of our aliases to,” he tells Darcy.

“Nice,” Darcy says, “anything further?”

Steve shakes his head and continues forwarding the tape, hoping to find them leaving the hotel later that day. They leave the hotel barely an hour after they’ve arrived but since they’re walking and the network of CCTV cameras in Panama City is spotty, he has no way of tracking them. They leave the hotel a couple of times and return a few hours later each time. They’re always dressed inconspicuously.

And then he sees them leave the following night in formal wear.

He pauses the video and stares at it. It takes him a moment to confirm that it’s really them because he’s wearing glasses and Darcy’s hair is dark now. A wig, he thinks, they probably got that from Natasha’s place. Then he remembers Natasha’s words about formal wear and concealed carry, the garter holsters and bra holsters that went missing, and decides to never ever tell her about this.

“We went out in formal wear,” he tells Darcy.

“What?” she scoots over to look at his screen, staring at it for a moment. “Very Bond-like,” she decides. “And you look good with glasses.”

“Thanks,” Steve says dryly, before focussing on the background of the camera. He can see the entire entrance and this time he’s hoping that he can see them getting into a taxi, which would make tracking them a lot easier. Thankfully, they do and he manages to find out the cab number, which he gives to Darcy to track.

“According to the record, we made it to the Teatro Nacional,” she tells him before she sends the entire tracking data for the night to him.

“Really?” Out of curiosity, Steve pulls up the website to find out what was playing that night. “Marriage of the Figaro was premiering that night,” he informs Darcy. “We went to the opera in fancy dress. That’s even more Bond-like.”

“Well,” Darcy teases, “you know how it is. It’s not a spy story until there’s fancy dress.”

Steve finds out that there’s an ATM at the opposite side of the theatre and searches to see if Darcy pulled that footage. He looks at it around the time stamp they should’ve arrived at the theatre and finds them arriving, with Darcy heading into the building first and Steve following her around 15 minutes after. He looks at the footage again, trying to see if there’s anything, anybody that Steve followed inside but there is nothing obvious.

He fast forwards through more of the ATM footage. They don’t leave the theatre for the next few hours – or maybe they don’t leave it through the front entrance. He can’t find them once they performance is over either, because the crowd is too large. He looks at it for a while longer, hoping that maybe they left after the crowd had dispersed, but there’s nothing. He goes back to the hotel footage to maybe trace their movements back from their return to the hotel.

They re-appear on the camera at the entrance after midnight, almost three hours after the end of the opera. Even though the quality is grainy, he thinks that Darcy looks worse for the wear. She’s wearing his suit jacket now, leaning onto him, and she’s holding her right side.

“I think you got injured in Panama,” he tells Darcy, shoving his laptop in front of her. “You’re holding your right side, that’s where your stab wound is, right?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Darcy says pensively, staring at the picture a moment longer. “Do you know where we were coming from?”

Steve searches for any data, but it’s not helpful. They were picked up at a – as far as he can tell – random street corner in the outskirts of the city. Further information reveals that they checked out less than an hour later, changed into normal clothes once again, and got into another taxi. This time Steve knows where they were headed even before he sees the data from the cab company. They’d driven to the airport hotel.

“I mean,” Steve says slowly, “I think we can now assume that you got your bullet wound in London? I think our late checkout in Panama was due to the fact that you’d been injured and we were afraid of being caught. We did the same thing in London, check out of a hotel at a very weird hour only to go to another hotel across town. That’s probably again due to your injury.”

“Makes sense,” Darcy agrees.

“Depressing though that we can’t find out anything else.”

“What about at the theatre?” Darcy asks.

“There is nothing really that rings any bells – or screams ‘suspicious’.”

“Hmm,” Darcy rewinds back to the moment they’re reappearing at the hotel in fancy dress, with her being injured. She stares at it for a moment. “So you were really wearing glasses and I was really wearing that dress,” she says quietly, to herself.

“What?”

Steve is surprised to see Darcy blush. “I… I remembered something, but I wasn’t sure if it was a memory or a dream. I thought it couldn’t be a memory because of the formal wear and my dark hair and your glasses, but now… I was really wearing that dress and you were wearing a tux and glasses, so I guess memory it is.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Steve peers at her curiously.

Darcy’s blush deepens. “Because we kind of… kissed?”

Steve leans back and stares at her, blinking. “What?”

“So…” Darcy takes a long breath, “so… it’s not much, it’s just… don’t read anything into it…” She drags her hand through her hair. “What I remember is… I’m sitting on a chair in a hotel room and I’m wearing that dress – it’s yellow by the way, you can’t see that on the black and white tape – and you’re ripping the dress off me.”

Steve sucks in a sharp breath.

“It was probably so you could take care of my wound,” Darcy hastens to explain.

“…Right.”

“Which you then did. I think. And then we made out,” Darcy rushes out. “I initiated it. Just making out,” she stresses, “nothing further.”

Steve stares at her wide-eyed for a moment. He hadn’t expected this turn, really. He has no recollection of this and for a moment he considers what he would’ve done with the memory had he remembered it first.

“How long have you-” Steve can’t help but ask and is surprised when Darcy avoids his gaze.

She fiddles with her hands nervously. “A week now, maybe two,” she mumbles.

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” Steve is not accusatory, just curious.

“I thought maybe I was just imagining things, dreaming…”

“You were dreaming about kissing me?” Steve teases to lighten the mood.

Darcy looks up to glare at him and punches him in the arm. “Shut up, Steve, you’re an attractive specimen, get over it. But it was so clichéd, you know. The formal dress, me being practically half-naked in front of you… I could’ve totally imagined it based on some scene I’d read in a romance novel once upon a time.”

“Well, you didn’t. Any other romantic dreams you might want to check with me?” Steve grins widely.

“Just the one,” she deadpans.

Steve looks at her for a moment. “The clean slate conversation,” he realises, “two weeks ago. Was that what it was all about?”

Darcy nods slowly. “I mean, I figured you’d remember eventually – if it were true. And I just… it didn’t…” she takes a deep breath. “I didn’t want you to think that it should… it’s all in the past and it didn’t mean anything.”

Steve hums thoughtfully. “Do you think you were falling for me? That we were falling for each other?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so?” she looks at him questioningly. “We were alone together for some time. Things were charged up. You naturally build a rapport, when you only have one person you can trust. You might want to let off some steam… It might not have meant anything, except a quick make-out.” Darcy shrugs.

“Like a wartime romance,” Steve realises. “They start under extraordinary circumstances and might not be sustainable once things are back to normal, once you’re back home.”

“Yeah,” Darcy agrees, “or something similar. I mean, you really can’t trust your feelings if you’re just cooped up together. Maybe it’s just Stockholm syndrome’s ugly cousin or something like that.”

Steve thinks about it for a moment. It’s a legitimate argument – and a legitimate concern, because they’re in a similar situation now. He and Darcy are cooped up together more often than not. It’s not as extreme as their two-week adventure when they could only rely on each other, but even now, even though they have friends close by, they’ve decided to only trust each other and no one else. It’s not that Steve thinks about kissing her, but he realises that these are extraordinary circumstances and some things they do might be weird and will feel completely out of character when they’ll look at it with more distance, in a few months or even years. Maybe Darcy’s clean slate idea wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

“But in any case,” Darcy says decisively. “We shouldn’t really think about it much – and it’s one of the cases where the past doesn’t affect the present. It shouldn’t affect us at all.”

Steve looks at her for a moment, because it looks like Darcy is also trying to convince herself. He asks himself if he should say something, but decides against it. She’s right; it’s in the past and shouldn’t mean anything.

“Shame,” he instead comments dryly. “I remember you calling me pinnacle of physical perfection one time. I was prepared to tease you mercilessly about it.”

“Now you’re just making stuff up.”

“I’m really not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mine Steve and Darcy are talking about (and planning to attack/save) is real and really richest cassiterite deposit in the world. Bolivia in general is resource rich and part of the so-called "Lithium Triangle". Here's a very interesting article about the impacts of the mining in region on the indigenous people: [Tossed Aside in the "White Gold" Rush](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/tossed-aside-in-the-lithium-rush/)


	19. Chapter 19

### Chapter 19

Clint looks like the cat that ate the canary when he stops by her office a few days later, which immediately makes Darcy suspicious.

“You’re in for a treat,” he announces.

Darcy narrows her eyes at him, but doesn’t say anything.

“Seriously,” Clint continues, “follow me.”

“I have work to do.”

“Just take an early lunch break. You’ll not regret it. Come on.”

Darcy follows him, albeit reluctantly, because she knows that resistance is futile when Clint is in this particular mood, and they make their way to the lower levels of the Triskelion where most of the training areas are located.

He leads her to an obscure door at the end of the hallway and uses the iris scanner to open the door.

“Level 8 and above access only,” he explains with a mischievous grin. “But I guess we’ll make an exception for you. It’s nothing you hopefully haven’t seen yet anyway.”

They enter and there’s definitely someone inside. Darcy can hear movement and what she thinks is the sound of fighting. Are they interrupting an active training session? That makes little sense. And is she supposed to take part in that? She discards that idea because then Clint would’ve probably told her to change. He also knows that she started her physical training to get back into fighting shape a few weeks ago, so there’s no need for additional lessons.

“Clint-” Darcy begins but stops when they step around a corner and she can see what is going on.

Steve and Natasha are fighting each other. She stares at them for a moment, unable to form a single coherent thought. They’re going at each other without holding back. Steve has strength in his favour, but Natasha has speed and agility. They are pretty evenly matched. Natasha manages to put him in a choke hold with her thighs, leading Steve to tap out. They go at it again and the next time Steve manages to pin her down to the mat, forcing her to tap out.

Clint elbows her and motions towards a staircase that leads towards some sort of observation area. Darcy picks her jaw up from the floor and follows him.

“Wow,” she says, leaning against the railing and looking down at them.

“I told you you wouldn’t regret it,” Clint says smugly.

“How-” Darcy begins but stops herself. Everybody knows that Steve is enhanced. But for the Black Widow to keep up with him, Darcy thinks that she has some superhuman abilities too. Of course there are rumours within SHIELD, but nobody knows for sure. Darcy stops herself from finishing her question. She knows that with the Black Widow sometimes it’s better not to ask.

“They do this when their schedule allows it,” Clint explains without prompting. “They got into this a few months after the Battle of New York, when Steve returned from his road trip and some quality time alone. He has really stepped up his game in hand-to-hand combat. Nat’s claims she’s responsible for most of his more… gymnastic moves.”

Darcy hums in understanding. She can’t tear her eyes away. “I mean,” she finally manages to say, “back in the 1940s they basically gave him a gun and the shield and sent him to war, right? After his stint with the USO? So he probably enjoys learning everything now.”

“Yup and we’ve all chimed in,” Clint says, “made suggestions. And Tony improved the uniform.”

“Oh really?” Darcy asks. “What’s your contribution to the education of Steve Rogers?”

“I told him to google ‘parkour’.” Darcy turns around and sees that he’s grinning widely.

They observe the practice in silence for a few more minutes.

“Why did you bring me here?” Darcy asks.

“Like I said: I thought that you might enjoy this.”

“Did Natasha put you up to this?” Darcy asks suspiciously. Natasha is still pretty involved in Steve’s love life, which means that she’s extended her meddling to Darcy, too, since as his wife she’s a major part of his love life. Last week, in what Darcy believes was half a joke and half seriousness, she bought them a pile of marriage handbooks, in case they wanted to give their marriage a chance after all.

“Hah, no. I just thought you hadn’t seen Steve this way… Fighting I mean,” he clarifies. “Or at least you don’t remember. Maybe seeing him might trigger some memories.”

Darcy stares down once more. “It doesn’t,” she says.

“How’s the remembering going?” Clint asks.

“It’s going,” Darcy says carefully.

“But nothing you want to share with the class yet,” Clint states gently.

Darcy is quiet for a moment. She knows that it’s a perfect moment to tell Clint. Even though he works for SHIELD, she trusts him. He would be one of the first ones she would tell. She knows that it’s dangerous to keep everything between her and Steve, but she doesn’t want to tell Clint half a story. It’s only bits and pieces so far and she doesn’t want to tell him anything until she’s sure that she hasn’t done anything awful. It’s different with Steve, because he was there with her, her decisions were probably his decisions as well, but with Clint, and with everybody else, she wants to protect herself. Darcy has to make sure that she can still look at herself in the mirror before she tells anybody else.

“I get that,” Clint continues. “As you know, I had all my memories back in HD a few hours after the attack on New York, basically once we’ve all had our shawarma, but I didn’t want to discuss them with anybody. I needed to figure stuff out first, sort myself out. I imagine you’re loathe to discuss when all you have is bits and pieces. And even if you know everything, it’s not something you can discuss easily.”

Darcy throws him a grateful smile. “Thank you,” she says quietly.

Clint just shrugs and they watch Steve and Natasha for a while longer. After 10 or 15 minutes, Natasha once more manages to overpower Steve and afterwards they call it a day. Steve gets up from the mat and lifts his shirt to mop the sweat off his face, exposing his perfect abs.

Clint looks at Darcy and waggles his eyebrows suggestively. “Lookin’ good, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, Clint, I – and the majority of the planet – know that Steve is incredibly handsome. And he doesn’t even need to take his shirt off to prove it.”

“Any thoughts about consummating the marriage – if you guys haven’t already,” Clint teases.

Darcy quietly shakes her head but doesn’t answer.

“Also, you guys are still married. Shouldn’t the divorce papers have been ready for weeks?”

“Steve’s financial advisor told him that we should stay married for tax reasons,” Darcy deadpans.

Clint barks out a laugh. “Let’s head down and say hi,” he suggests and before Darcy can answer, her jumps over the railing and slides down one of the metal pillars to get down. Darcy shakes her head and takes the stairs to follow him.

Steve grins at her when he sees her. Darcy looks him up and down and is distracted for a moment (or ten). It’s not the first time she’s seen him in his sports shirt. She’s caught up with him after his morning run plenty of times already. It’s however the first time she’s seen him sweaty and out of breath – and now she feels comfortable looking.

She stares at him for a moment longer, then pokes him in the stomach. “These shirts really don’t leave anything to imagination, do they?”

Steve crosses his arms in front of his chest. “I have eyes, too, you know,” he says, clearly amused.

“Hey,” Darcy says not at all apologetically, “I’m married, not dead.”

“Yeah, you’re married to me.”

They just grin at each other for a moment. Darcy knows that both Natasha and Clint are observing them closely, but she doesn’t care.

“Alright,” she says, looking at her watch. “My lunch break is over. Time for us desk jockeys to return to work.”

Steve follows her to the door.

“I’ll see you tonight?” she asks.

“Yup – if nothing unforeseen happens.”

~*~

They stood at a street corner in Huanuni, the mine a couple of hundred feet down the road. They were about to thwart a terrorist plot by pretending to execute it themselves. It was a crazy idea. They didn’t have a perfect plan but they didn’t need to. Darcy just needed to get caught and make it look convincing, like a veritable threat.

They also needed to do it fast, because Huanuni was an hour away from the next major city and four hours from La Paz. If they wanted the army to arrive, they needed to make sure that it arrived in time. And then they would have to hold out long enough. Steve had checked and said that they needed to hold out until trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ended – which was 5pm local time. Afterwards the derivatives would be worthless and the bad guys would hopefully abandon their plan.

Darcy was scared. She looked up at Steve who appeared unnervingly calm.

“Look at that fence,” he said just now, “it’s pitiful. And those guards.” He snorted derisively.

“I’m going to copy that exact attitude,” Darcy promised.

“Only if you need to. You’ll figure out during interrogation what’s working best to push their buttons. You’re a great agent.”

“Thanks,” Darcy said quietly.

It had only occurred to her this morning, when they had discussed returning to DC, that this was the endgame. Their little mission, their two-week adventure, was about to be over.

Darcy hadn’t really thought about the aftermath in the recent days, because it had seemed too far away. But she knew they couldn’t return back to normal. Their actions – least of all her marriage to and impending divorce from Captain America – would have consequences. She had the scars to prove it.

There would be interrogations and debriefings and maybe hearings even. Darcy fully expected to spend at least a few weeks behind bars – or in detention if SHIELD decided to be kind.

There was also still the very real possibility that things would not turn out the way they thought they would. She could still be seriously injured or, worse, killed.

And then there was Steve. Darcy looked up at him. Their kiss hadn’t changed much about their teamwork, but there was possibility now. The question was if this, whatever it was between them, was even sustainable, if it would work out under normal circumstances – if there were normal circumstances to begin with.

She had never expected to like him so much. Part of her dreaded that her feelings were skewed because she had spend so much time with him, with him alone, but then, maybe…

She took a deep breath and decided to concentrate on the task at hand.

“I’m scared,” Darcy confessed.

“It is dangerous,” Steve said quietly.

Darcy looked up at him in surprise. She had hoped for some reassurance, for him to tell her that it would be alright, like he had done at the beginning of all this, two weeks – another lifetime – ago. But then he had never minced words, he had always treated her as an equal and had respected her. He might have been worried about her safety, but he had never undermined her. He had trusted her abilities and, while he had been honest and reassuring, it made sense that he wouldn’t start sugar-coating things now.

Darcy took a deep breath. “I’ll better be going,” she said with too much false bravado, moving away from him.

Steve grabbed her hand, gently, insistently, holding her back and forcing her to turn around and to look at him.

“Darcy,” he said quietly, confidently, “it’s dangerous but I have no doubt that you’ll be successful. We’ll make it. Just be careful out there.”

Darcy stepped up to him, took his face in both hands, and kissed him. The kiss was short, chaste, but somehow reassuring.

“A kiss for good luck,” Darcy explained when she saw his questioning gaze. “I’ll see you in a few hours when you break me out of prison. And once this is all over, when we’re back in DC, you should ask me out for coffee.”

Steve smiled at her. “We’re well beyond a coffee date at this point. Let’s do dinner.”

~*~

“Let’s do dinner,” Darcy announces almost as soon as Steve steps inside the apartment, “we’re going out, come on.”

“What?” Steve asks, confused, keys still dangling from his hand.

“Dinner at a restaurant. Not staying in and pouring over data for a change.”

Steve squints at her for a moment. “Why?”

“I’m feeling cooped in and I’m certain that I’ll not be getting any work done tonight. Let’s just go out. There’s a good Ethiopian place not far from here.”

“Okay,” Steve agrees.

“And we’ll not be talking about work. Of any kind,” she emphasises.

At first Steve thinks that it’s all a ruse, that she’ll take the opportunity to update him on some sort of breakthrough away from any prying ears, in a crowded restaurant, but Darcy doesn’t mention anything related to SHIELD, their disappearance, or their investigation into the circumstances for the entire night. She doesn’t put her hair up in a ponytail once.

Steve is enjoying it. Darcy regales him with tales about her time at Culver and her work as Jane’s intern/assisstant and Steve in return talks about his time in the 30s and 40s, before the army, the serum, the heroics.

It almost feels like a real date.

They walk home in companionable silence. Darcy bumps her shoulder into his and grins up at him. She’s giggly and happy.

Steve wants to take Darcy’s hand, but reminds himself that he’s not supposed to do that. This is not a date, Steve tells himself several times. Not. A. Date. This is not a real relationship, just a partnership of convenience. He doesn’t even know if they work as friends. And he really shouldn’t start thinking about feelings now. Their relationship isn’t meant to last, it has an expiration date. The closer they get to unmasking the underlying conspiracy, what they did in those two weeks, why they got married, the closer they come to the day they’ll divorce.

They walk up the stairs to their apartment and Steve fumbles with the keys in his hands for a moment.

“That was a fun evening,” Darcy says.

“Yeah, it was,” Steve agrees.

“Let’s do this more often.”

Something in her tone makes Steve look at her and he realises how close she is. He can feel her warmth, smell her perfume. She smiles up at him affectionately and Steve can’t stop himself. Damning the consequences, he leans forward and kisses her. It’s supposed to be a quick kiss, just a peck on her soft lips, just one short moment of weakness. Darcy makes a surprised sound, but then she fists his jacket with one hand, palms the back of his head with the other, and doesn’t allow him to escape.

He grabs her waist and pulls her closer, hard. She gasps, parting her lips, and he takes advantage of that, kissing her more deeply. He presses her against the wall, then hoists her up and Darcy wraps her legs around his waist. Steve slips one hand under her shirt, caressing her skin, while Darcy slides one hand around his neck, pressing her fingers into his shoulder.

Darcy breaks off the kiss, breathing heavily. She leans her forehead against his and they both take a few deep breaths. She looks at him, glassy-eyed, lips swollen, hair in disarray.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” Steve says without any regret. He has to hold himself back in order to not kiss her again.

“No, you shouldn’t,” Darcy agrees. “Doesn’t mean I didn’t want it though.”

“So, what now?” Steve asks. “Do you want to take this further?”

“I do,” Darcy says, “but we shouldn’t.” She runs her finger along his collar distractedly. “We really shouldn’t be doing this, not while everything is still in limbo.”

“I know. But it’s hard to be a responsible adult here.”

“And you know that we really can’t trust our feelings,” Darcy points out.

“What do you mean?” Steve asks, a little alarmed.

Darcy doesn’t immediately answer and Steve realises how ridiculous their position is, to be talking about this so rationally while they are still wrapped around each other, with his hand under Darcy’s shirt, splayed on her back. And her lips are so tempting, he has to concentrate on her words or he might become too distracted and might not be able to stop himself from kissing her again. He puts some distance between them and Darcy gets the hint and unwraps her legs from his waist. Steve sets her down before leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway.

“Remember that conversation we had a few days back? About our other kiss? About Stockholm syndrome’s ugly cousin?”

“Yeah,” Steve says quietly.

“Isn’t this similar?”

Steve doesn’t say anything, but he knows that Darcy is right. He had the same thought about it back then.

“So you think we wouldn’t be doing this under normal circumstances?” Steve asks.

“At this point I don’t even know what qualifies as normal any longer. I just don’t _know_.” Darcy refuses to look at him and stares at her feet. “But maybe we should…” she stops and makes a cut-off gesture. “Maybe we should put all of this on hold until it’s clear that this is not just happening because we might’ve grown dangerously co-dependent.”

Steve contemplates this quietly for a moment. He knows that Darcy has a point, that he’s had the exact same concerns. But then… he thinks that maybe they’re both too overly cautious and should just see where this leads them. If you wait too long… He stops himself from going down that road. It’s not like there’s a war going on or that this is a life or death situation. He would never pressure Darcy anyway.

“Alright,” Steve straightens, walks towards the door and unlocks it, “then we wait. And if our feelings are still there after the dust has settled, we’ll explore them then.”

“No hard feelings?” Darcy asks.

He turns around to look at her once more. She’s biting her lip, a little unsure. “I’ll still respect you in the morning, Darcy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In order to get the perfect transition for the “Let’s do dinner” in this chapter, I had to delete a cute scene between Darcy and Steve (it’s referenced during Darcy’s conversation with Clint). [You can find it on tumblr here](https://amernaisnowhere.tumblr.com/post/178648359755/deleted-scene).


	20. Chapter 20

### Chapter 20

Sleep is impossible in any case, so Steve doesn’t even attempt it, instead he begins sketching a new piece. Darcy is awake before sunrise, so it seems to affect her too – or maybe she has one of her sleepless nights when the nightmare from her attack are too pervasive. She pads into the living room, stops when she sees him and stares at him for a moment. This whole situation is so weird now – even though they’ve been trying to not let it become weird after Darcy first told him that they’d kissed while on the run together.

“Hey,” she says quietly.

“Hey,” Steve answers, equally quiet.

“You couldn’t sleep?”

Steve only shakes his head.

“Yeah, me neither.”

She stands next to him in silence for a while. Their silence used to be relaxing, companionable, now it feels tense and unnatural.

“What are you painting?” she asks.

Steve shrugs and looks at the drawing in front of him. It’s a cityscape that’s just coming together. Antique cars in front of a large domed building, that bears some resemblance to the US Capitol. “Just something that came to my mind.”

Darcy looks at it closely. “That’s Havana, I think,” she says. “Cuba. Have you ever been?”

“No, I can’t really go seeing that the US doesn’t have official relations with Cuba.”

“Maybe you went,” Darcy points out. “Maybe we went together. Our cruise ship anchored there.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Steve says.

Darcy takes a deep breath and for a moment Steve thinks that she wants to say something, but then she doesn’t.

That’s when her phone rings. She answers it and frowns in confusion. “Yeah, okay, he’s right here,” she says after a moment.

She hands him the phone. “Natasha,” she whispers.

“Why are you calling Darcy?” Steve says in a way of greeting.

“So that your wife knows where you’ll be in the next 24 hours. SHIELD is about to tell you that you need to suit up and I don’t think letting Darcy know is high on their list of priorities – even though she has a right to know.”

“Okay,” Steve only says.

“So, please extricate yourself out of your wife’s warm embrace – that’s what I prefer to think is the reason why she was right next to you this early in the morning – and get your ass down to SHIELD. We have a situation for you.”

~*~

It worried Darcy a little that it was so easy to build explosives – and so easy to attack the Huanuni mine. The first explosion hit an abandoned building on the outskirts of the complex. Darcy had made sure five times that nobody was even near that building. In the confusion that followed, it would’ve been easy for her to just slip away, but that was not part of the plan. She basically ran straight into the security guards’ arms.

One rammed the butt of his gun into her back, making Darcy yelp in pain and forcing her to the ground. They put her in handcuffs next. She didn’t resist.

They placed her in an empty room and locked the door behind her. Darcy immediately catalogued the entire room. The window had the steel bars in front of it, making an escape unlikely, but the door was thin with a lock that would probably take her less than a minute to open. She still wore handcuffs, but she had practiced picking them and was fairly sure she could do it, especially when she wasn’t under pressure.

The door opened less than 15 minutes later and two policemen stepped inside. They talked to her in rapid-fire Spanish, which Darcy didn’t understand.

“They want to know who you are,” Steve helpfully translated via the comm unit.

“No hablo español,” Darcy managed to say. This was, together with “Hola, ¿cómo estás?” and “Estoy bien” the entire extent of her Spanish knowledge.

The two officers’ eyebrows shot up in surprise, then they conferred with each other.

“They’ll bring you down to the station,” Steve explained. “Major déjà vu, by the way. This is the second time I’m watching you being taken away by police.”

They indeed bundled her up into a patrol car and drove her a short distance to a police station where she was brought into an interrogation room. A few minutes later a man entered the room, who, in halting English, introduced himself as Detective Huerta, the station sergeant.

He sat down opposite of her. “What is your name?” he asked.

Darcy leaned back in her chair – at least as far as that was possible with her hands cuffed to the table – and smiled at him, relaxed, like she had no worry in the world.

“You don’t need to know that and you will never find out,” she simply said.

“Qué quiere-” he stopped himself. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to stay here for long.”

He narrowed his eyes at her.

“My friends are going to come and finish what I started. Soon. And then they’ll break me out,” she said blithely.

His eyebrows rose almost to his hairline. “Why did you do it?” he asked.

“I’m not going to tell you. Like I said: It won’t matter.”

“Why did you attack the mine?” he insisted.

Darcy took a deep breath. “Because it was easy,” she told him.

“Easy?” he repeated.

“Yes, the security is laughable. It’s an easy target.”

“But what is your reason?”

Darcy simply shrugged and didn’t answer.

He asked her a few more questions, but Darcy didn’t provide any further answers. She had said enough and she felt that an aura of aloofness would help her cause. Detective Huerta left her alone in the cell soon after.

“He’s on the phone,” Steve reported.

“Do you think he’s making the call we want him to make?”

“I have no idea.”

He didn’t call in the reinforcements Darcy and Steve had hoped for, instead an hour later a Police Chief Director appeared to interrogate her again.

Darcy surreptitiously checked her watch throughout. They were running out of time. They needed to come to a conclusion soon.

Steve seemed to think the same. “I’m going to set another building on fire,” he announced.

Darcy sucked in a sharp breath.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to be careful. Nothing is going to happen to me or to anybody else. And I’m not going to get caught. Like I said: their security precautions are pitiful.”

The explosion rang out through the valley 15 minutes later. Steve assured her shortly after that everything would be alright. Her two interrogators immediately left the cell. Steve told her that they’d sped to the mine to surmise the damage and to speak with the mining director. It was easy for Steve to watch all of it as part of the crowd of onlookers that had gathered.

“They’re calling in the army,” he announced a little later. “They’re really doing it,” he sounded relieved. “Part one was successful.”

“Now we only have to hope that they’re strong enough to hold the real perpetrators at bay.”

~*~

Darcy thinks that maybe she made a mistake last night. She has no specific memory to support her assumption but she has the distinct feeling that maybe she and Steve are repeating history, that they keep postponing whatever it is between them to when things are back to normal. But maybe things will never go back to normal. Maybe this is the new normal for them. Maybe they should just go for it; try things out; throw caution in the wind.

But Steve needs to return home first.

Instead her phone rings with an unknown international number calling. Darcy answers it hesitantly.

“Darcy, it’s me.”

“Jane?” Darcy looks at her phone in confusion for a moment, like she can’t believe that the electronic sounding, distant voice is her friend. “I thought you had no reception in Patagonia.”

“I don’t. I borrowed a very old satellite phone,” Jane says impatiently.

“Why are you calling me?” Darcy is immediately on alert. “Is there an emergency? Are you alright? And Thor?”

“I’m fine. Thor, too. Look, I found data from you that’s definitely related to your disappearing act,” Jane sounds as excited as she does when she makes a new discovery.

“We were in Patagonia? That doesn’t make any sense. We were last-”

“No,” Jane interrupts her, “not here, locally. On the server! Remember, you set it up for me for research stuff and you still have access. There was data on there. Put on there by you almost right at the beginning of your disappearance and throughout the two weeks you were missing.”

“Holy shit,” Darcy scrambles towards her laptop and logs onto the server. The data package is still there. She downloads and opens it.

“I took a look and couldn’t figure it out,” Jane continues. “It’s a bunch of emails and some other data. A lot of German. A lot of financial data. Swiss bank accounts with a few hundred thousand dollars you earmarked as donations for scientific purposes. But this is your data. And you organised it magnificently. I think this will be really helpful.”

“Holy shit,” Darcy repeats as she scrolls through the data. “Don’t take this personally. You can’t believe how grateful I am right now, but I gotta go. I’ll call you back.”

“Go and tell Steve,” Jane says good-naturedly. “Bring the responsible to justice and then tell me all about it.”

~*~

Darcy spent the night in a cell in the police station. She distracted herself with picking her handcuffs over and over again before she fell into fitful sleep.

She was awoken by gun shots in the distance early the next morning – and Steve opening the door to her prison cell.

“It’s starting,” he said.

Darcy got up from the tiny, uncomfortable bed. “Did the army arrive on time?”

“They did. One of their commanders asked to see you but there was some haggling about jurisdictions and then they were distracted,” Steve told her.

“Lucky me.”

“And the police station had practically been abandoned,” he continued.

“All hands on deck?” Darcy said more to herself.

“Seems that way.”

“I can’t believe they made that mistake though,” she continued while they made their way through the station. “Now that the people I was talking about have obviously arrived, I should’ve been put under extra protection. I told them that they’d come to get me.”

Steve only shrugged. “Maybe we’re not dealing with the cream of the crop here.”

“My second prison break was a lot less eventful than my first,” Darcy joked once they were outside.

“I’ll try to make the third one more exciting for you,” Steve teased.

“I hope it won’t come to that.”

They got into their car and drove to a secure lookout spot that Steve had found. They’d be able to survey the scene from there – and hopefully see their plan succeed.

“Do you ever think about how many laws we’ve broken in the past two weeks?” Darcy mused loudly. She was feeling wistful now that their mission was coming to an end. “How many places we’ve broken into? How many things we’ve stolen from unsuspecting people? And the property damage we have incurred?”

“I try not to.”

Darcy hummed to herself.

“I had a conversation like that with Natasha at the beginning,” Steve said slowly a moment later. “I don’t even know how we came to that topic. She told me once that the best place to get a car is a luxury hotel because the patrons probably can replace it easily. No need to have a guilty conscience for taking away somebody’s livelihood.”

“And because she probably likes to drive expensive cars. But seriously,” Darcy added, “have you never been held accountable? I mean, the property damage from the Battle of New York alone was almost a hundred billion.”

“SHIELD has been protecting us from that so far.”

“But they won’t be able to protect you forever,” Darcy pointed out. “Maybe, at some point, you’ll be held accountable. And I don’t think that the ‘we did it for the greater good’ excuse is going to fly with DC bureaucrats.”

“Maybe,” was all Steve said.

Darcy sat on the hood of the car while Steve surveyed the scene with binoculars. Occasionally he handed them to Darcy. So far the army seemed to be successful in fighting back the attackers, who retreated after a few hours.

Steve looked at his watch. “They’re going to come back,” he predicted. “They still have time and they were surprised by the resistance they encountered. If I were them, I would try to get air support.”

“Do you think that’s possible on such short notice?”

“I hope not.”

The wait became more nerve grating as time passed. It felt so strange that the success of their plan was no longer in their hands. There was nothing they could do at this point, they had to wait and see – and hope.

“They’re making another pass at it,” Steve announced shortly after noon.

“How much time do they have left again?”

“Four hours. But they already closed London markets, so their anticipated payoff won’t be as large as they planned.”

“Did we ever stop to ask ourselves how much money they have riding on it?” Darcy asked.

“No. With derivatives it’s hard to tell. Probably millions, could be billions,” Steve handed her the binoculars, “depending on how much prices plummet.”

“Come on guys,” Darcy said, looking through it. There was chaos down there. She couldn’t figure out how many attackers there were. It had been a small group early in the morning, but they’d probably gathered reinforcements. They seemed to attack from different vantage points, but it didn’t look as if they were able to breach the compound. Thankfully, as far as Darcy could see, there were no civilians on the street. And she hoped that they’d gotten the mine workers to safety – both the ones above and below ground.

They switched the binoculars around a couple more times, with Darcy commenting bemusedly that they should’ve gotten another pair. It was Steve who pointed them northbound, when he spotted a cloud of dust in the distance.

“It’s reinforcements,” he told Darcy.

“Which party?”

“Military.”

“Holy shit,” Darcy realised, “the bad guys, they’re going to be surrounded.”

“They’ll have to give themselves up,” Steve agreed. “They’re outnumbered, they’ll not manage to do what they came for.”

“Holy shit,” Darcy repeated.

They followed everything from a distance, it took less than an hour and the fight was over.

Darcy stared at Steve, wide-eyed. “We did it. We really did it.” She was about to hug him, when Steve’s gaze shifted from hers and he looked at a place just over her shoulder and used the binoculars to look at that.

“There are people coming in our direction,” he told her.

“Do you think we got made?”

“Maybe. We weren’t exactly inconspicuous.”

“Time to head out of here then,” Darcy said decisively.

They headed for their car and Steve sped down the gravel road at top speed. He looked in the rear-view mirror. “We definitely got made. We’re being followed.”

“By who?”

“Too difficult to-”

A truck slammed into the driver’s side of their car seemingly out of nowhere. A side street, Darcy realised distractedly. Everything slowed down.

“Steve,” Darcy yelled. She looked at him with huge eyes and he extended his arm to reach for her but then the impact threw Darcy’s right side against the door and her head hit the car window. The car turned over and tumbled down the slope.

Darcy heard screams and realised that they were her own.

When the car finally stopped, she didn’t register it at first. Her vision was blurred; everything was fuzzy around her and she had to concentrate to focus. Her ears were ringing; her head was throbbing. She sagged forwards against the safety belt. The pain in her right side was excruciating.

Her breathing was quick and shallow. She turned her head to her left to look at Steve.

“Steve?” she said quietly, but he didn’t react. He was slumped against the steering wheel. Blood was gushing out of a head wound onto the dashboard. His right hand was standing up at an odd angle. His legs looked strangely jammed into the footwell.

“Steve,” Darcy repeated, panic rising in her stomach. She fumbled with the safety belt but couldn’t open it. She reached out with her hand to touch him, but he didn’t react.

“Steve!” Darcy said, tears welling up in her eyes. “Come on Steve, talk to me. Wake up, wake up. Please wake up.”

She was panicking and crying in earnest now. She thought that she heard voices, but she knew better than to hope that they would help. It was probably their attackers, making sure that they were dead.

The throbbing in her head intensified. There were dark spots in front of her eyes.

And then darkness overtook her.

~*~

Once their mission in the middle of nowhere is over and Steve is again within cell phone range, he checks his messages and is surprised to see several voicemails from Darcy. He listens to them one after another. She sounds excited and breathless and tells him about a breakthrough and how she now knows almost everything and can’t wait to tell him but doesn’t want to discuss it over the phone.

Steve frowns at her messages for a moment, asking himself how she got to that point. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up, but other than a sudden burst of memories from Darcy, he can’t think of any way that she might have figured out what they did in those two weeks. Then he thinks that she’s been remembering a lot more in the past few days, just bits and pieces here and there, so it might actually be possible. Her memories are more helpful to begin with. While Steve almost exclusively remembers stuff about Darcy and occasionally their time together, Darcy actually has had moments where she remembered specifics about where they did what.

He tries calling her back, but all his calls go straight to voicemail, so as soon as he’s back in DC, he forgoes the tactics debrief and speeds home.

The door to his apartment is unlocked, putting Steve immediately on high alert. He grabs his shield from its shoulder harness and creeps inside. His heart plummets. There are clear signs of a struggle having taken place inside. One of his bookshelves is toppled over, papers are strewn all across the apartment. His easel, desk, and chair have been overthrown, the coffee table has been moved a couple of feet out of place, leaving an ugly scratch on the hardwood floor.

The apartment is eerily quiet.

“Darcy?” he calls out, but there is no answer. He slowly advances and searches every room in the apartment but there is no sign of her.

She’s gone.


	21. Chapter 21

### Chapter 21

Darcy awakens in a darkened cell. She’s disoriented for a moment before she manages to catch her bearings. She remembers the attack in Steve’s apartment, how she’d been overpowered, how they’d put her to sleep. She should be traumatised by a renewed personal attack, but instead all she has is… disbelief.

This is such a cliché.

Her kidnapping also makes no sense, she’s married to Captain freakin’ America. There’s no doubt that he’ll do everything to find and rescue her. Whoever took her: They’re shooting themselves in the foot.

A few minutes later, the door opens; Darcy is handcuffed and led to another room by two non-descriptive grunts. There’s already a person inside.

Agent Sarah Unverzagt.

“So you’re behind it all,” Darcy says calmly.

Agent Unverzagt looks at her questioningly.

“Steve remembered you but couldn’t tell where from. And a day after we both searched for your record, I was brutally attacked.”

“Oh, yes… that.” She motions Darcy to take a seat. The room is arranged like an interrogation room, with Agent Unverzagt sitting on one side of the table and Darcy on the other. They’re left alone by the grunts.

She learns forward to uncuff Darcy’s wrists. “We know you can pick them.”

“Then you know more than I do.”

Agent Unverzagt looks at Darcy calculatingly.

“So what am I doing here?” Darcy asks.

“You and I are just going to have a nice chat.”

“Are you, in true Bond-villain style, going to tell me your entire evil plan? And then I’m supposed to thwart it?” Darcy says blithely. “Seriously though, while we’re on movie clichés: I’ve been shot and stabbed and injured enough to lose consciousness. There was an assassin in my apartment who almost succeeded in killing me. And now I’ve been kidnapped. For the sake of gender equality: Can you please do something to Steve the next time? This will also give me the chance to swoop in and save _him_ all damsel in distress-style for a change.”

“Sassy,” Agent Unverzagt comments.

“Should I worry? My husband is going to swoop in any second now. Maybe I can convince him to carry me out of this place all Bodyguard style,” Darcy muses. “Also: If you’d wanted to kill me, you would’ve done that by now. And you tried and failed once already.”

“Oh, yes, that was a mistake. Not one of mine though.”

They sit opposite each other in silent for a moment.

“Is there anything you want to ask me?” Agent Unverzagt asks earnestly. “You’ve been looking for answers these past months, haven’t you?

Darcy squints at her. She knows that it’s a game, a psychological game, that she’ll reveal as much about herself and her knowledge as Agent Unverzagt. But then, she only has to play along until she can figure a way out of here – or until Steve appears.

She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Do you know why Steve and I got married?”

There’s a look of surprise on Agent Unverzagt’s face. Darcy takes pride in knowing that she hadn’t expected that question. “No,” she answers, “we found out about it together with everybody else at SHIELD. You had managed to evade us pretty well by that point. We completely lost track of you after you left London. But then you had to visit Cuba on one of your… off days and we found you again.”

“We did?” So Steve really had been painting a place they’d been together. “I thought SHIELD had no station there.”

“SHIELD doesn’t but that doesn’t have to mean anything. At that time we didn’t know that you were already married. Like I said: we only found out the moment you updated your next of kin.”

“Shame, that’s the only thing that really interests me from our… chat. All the other things, we’ll probably find out eventually, but getting married…” Darcy trails off.

“Knowing Captain America, it was probably some ridiculously noble reason,” she sounds bemused, “like your protection.”

“What do you mean?” Darcy asks.

“I think I can say that in the early days we didn’t really care much about your survival. It was more important to get Captain America back in line, you were meant to be collateral damage. We could’ve gotten away with it too. Thor and Dr Foster might have been a problem, might have asked questions, maybe Hawkeye even, but accidents happen every day. But once you were Mrs. Captain America it was as if you were standing under a spotlight. We could no longer make you disappear and you knew that. I think Agent Adams told you right at the beginning: You were thorough in making sure that everybody heard the news.”

Darcy smiles to herself remembering that one of Steve’s suspicions, that they’d been inspired by the plot of a book he’d once read, might even be true. “So it saved my life,” she states out loud. “Marriage saved me – but not in the clichéd way.”

“It did – to an extent, yes. But in the end, we also used it to our advantage. Waking up married lent another… angle to your two-week absence. It certainly threw you off for a while, I think?”

“You brought us to Rio and checked us in at the hospital as a married couple.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, and wasn’t that a nice surprise? Though Agent Sitwell would have told you a few hours later anyway.”

“And you gave as a new set of rings,” Darcy says. “I’d always wondered how that came to be.”

“You didn’t wear any when we captured you so we had to improvise, yes. How do you know that?” she sounds honestly curious.

“There was a picture of us when we got married, on the cruise ship,” Darcy explains. “We were wearing simple gold bands, not the ones we woke up with.”

“Oh, interesting. See, it’s the little things that led to you finding out more than we wanted.”

“You also should’ve gotten your story straight from the beginning,” Darcy points out. “Sitwell told us the mission had been successful but it was easy enough to find out that it wasn’t.”

“We tried mimicking your style for the report.”

“You failed,” Darcy tells her. “And that’s when we got really suspicious.”

Agent Unverzagt hums thoughtfully.

“But why kidnap me now?” Darcy asks. “How did you know that I’d just found out everything? I mean, you must’ve known I was doing some research but we’ve been covering our tracks.”

“Admittedly, you were good. We knew that you were doing something but not necessarily the particulars and how far you’d come. All your information was secured by world-class encryption. But then there was this one call-”

“From Jane,” Darcy realises. “With the satellite phone from Patagonia. It was an unsecured line.”

“Precisely. And suddenly we knew that you were getting a little too close.”

“But why kidnap me? You know that this is a losing game for you.”

“Is it?” Agent Unverzagt challenges her.

Darcy frowns at her, asking herself if she’s missing something.

“But we’ve been weighing our options for a while,” Agent Unverzagt continues. “You’re a talented agent. We thought about recruiting you, but then…”

“Yeah, Captain America’s wife becoming a traitor, fat chance.”

“Being close to Captain America doesn’t necessarily preclude you from being welcomed into the fold. On the contrary, you could be a valuable… asset.” She smiles like she made a private joke, for which Darcy squints at her. “But, we’re not evil persons,” she continues. “And we definitely did not recruit evil people. We did not lure people with the promise of… world domination or unimaginable riches. Some people only want to do the right thing – or want to help out.”

“Is that what you believe?” Darcy snorts in disbelief. “Whatever makes you sleep at night.”

“I’m only asking you to imagine it for a moment. Think about Agent 13, she’s your friend, yes? Or maybe not a friend but a very welcome mentor?”

“You know about that too?”

“Not in detail. Agent 13 is far too good of an agent who knows how to cover her tracks. But think about it. If Agent 13 asked you to do something that is more in the… grey area. Something you might not even be 100% comfortable with. Would you do it? Because she’s your friend? Because she’s helped you in the past and you feel like you owe her?”

“Maybe,” Darcy admits. “But then I think I chose my friends so carefully that they won’t ask me to do something deeply unethical.”

“Maybe. But if this happened and you did her a favour: This is how you slide. What do Americans say again? ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’.”

Darcy looks at her in disbelief. “And I don’t that’s the correct saying for this situation and I don’t think it’s that easy. Maybe there’s a few people where this sort of… happened. But most of you are evil and greedy. I mean, you had millions riding on your… ploy. And you definitely didn’t care about collateral damage.”

“Is that what you’ve gathered from your notes?” Agent Unverzagt looks at her almost pitifully. “We did this for a few million dollars?”

“I only managed to do some cursory reading before your goons arrived and kidnapped me. I was mostly interested in who was responsible and then the how, the when, the why and the where. I didn’t exactly crunch any numbers.”

“Humour me, Agent Lewis. What exactly did you figure out in your… cursory reading?”

Darcy squints at her but does as asked. “That it was an elaborate insider trading scheme. That you tried to benefit from a terrorist plot you were planning to execute, because you knew how the international financial markets would react. Your target was tin, cassiterite I mean. You used various forms of derivatives and your target was the Huanuni mine in Bolivia, which has the world’s richest cassiterite deposit.”

“Exactly.” Agent Unverzagt doesn’t say anything further.

“So, how much money did Steve and I cost you?” Darcy decides to ask.

“Conservative estimate? 11 billion US dollars.”

Darcy gapes at her. “How?” she finally manages to say.

“Oh, you did so well with what you’d found out just now, Agent Lewis.”

“Well, Kiesewetter wasn’t your only trader. Steve and I only saw a fraction of the trades that you’d entered into.”

“Of course, but I think that you can do better than that. You should have a firmer grasp of the details based on your cursory reading.” Agent Unverzagt looks at her challengingly.

Darcy tries to remember what she managed to read before she was interrupted. “So I definitely get the call options. You have the option of buying the metal at a predetermined price, which will be lower than the market price because that’s going to skyrocket once you’ve created a shortage. Your gain would be the price difference.”

“Very good. What else?”

“There were options on mining companies, but I didn’t have time to figure them out just yet. Either you bet on falling share prices because the whole tin industry would crash, or you were betting on rising prices because the companies would become more valuable once you’d taken out one of the main competitors. Either way, you would’ve benefited from the difference in the share price.”

“Correct,” Agent Unverzagt acknowledges. “But there’s still more.”

Darcy considers the possibilities but that was all there was in the data, all the ways they could make money off with the derivatives. “You’re involved in the trade,” Darcy realises. “Those mining companies that were not affected, the ones in the actual conflict zone, around the DRC, you own them or are otherwise involved with them. In general, we cost you the price hike from the shortage.”

“There you go.”

“And of course you would’ve destroyed some the major competition.”

She nods.

“You’ve pulled this off before,” Darcy states. “Had a few trial runs, on a smaller scale. A few hundred million at most. Maybe a labour strike for a few days to impact prices. The fire at the Rotterdam oil refinery a few months back might not have been an accident after all. But we cost you the big bucks.”

Again they are silent for a moment.

“And to think,” Darcy continues, “that all this started because SHIELD sent me to Frankfurt to get data from a seemingly unimportant, small-times trader. Why did that happen?” she asks. “Why was I sent after Kiesewetter? Did you use SHIELD resources to survey him? Or did he manage to appear on somebody else’s radar and you found out too late that law enforcement had started to circle around him?”

“The latter. SHIELD, for whatever reason, despite our best efforts, somehow flagged him down as somebody who financed international terrorism. You were sent without our knowledge. And as soon as we found out-”

“You tried to kill him,” Darcy finishes her sentence, “but I was already there. But then…” she stops and thinks, “you could’ve just left it at that, his murder probably would’ve gone unsolved. Or you could’ve killed me too. All of it would’ve ended up as a cold case. But you made a mistake and tried to frame me for the murder.”

“Yes, that was a mistake.”

“But it might just have worked if not for Steve. You would’ve had no problems disposing of or intimidating or otherwise silencing my original CO, who was a nobody. But Captain America was more of a challenge. He protected me because he knew what you did was wrong.”

Agent Unverzagt nodded. “Far more than you can ever imagine. But we also underestimated how good an agent you were and how well you two would work together.”

“And to think that all this might just have happened because the Black Widow likes to interfere in Captain America’s love life.”

Agent Unverzagt shrugs in resignation.

“So my last question really is: How did you make us forget?” Darcy asks. “It can’t be drugs, because Steve’s metabolism would’ve worked through them pretty fast and he would’ve remembered after a few hours or days. Is there some kind of machine you strapped us to?”

“Yes.”

“And?” Darcy prompts.

“I don’t think you’d want to know the particulars,” Agent Unverzagt tells her. “You can be glad that you were unconscious.”

Darcy squints at her, but decides not to follow up. They’ll find out eventually. “Will we get our memories back?” she asks.

“At some point, probably.” She shrugs. “After all the years, decades really, we still haven’t managed to perfect the procedure. Feelings… emotions… Human nature is just so… unpredictable.”

“So why did you kidnap me? Why are you telling me all this? Like I said: You know that you’re making the clichéd ‘bad guy tells all’ mistake, right?”

Agent Unverzagt shrugs, but the gesture seems artificial somehow. “I don’t know. Maybe I just want to get it all out. Some sort of last confession.”

“You’re lying,” Darcy immediately retorts.

“Maybe I am, maybe I am not. Maybe I just want to get it over with,” she says tiredly. “Or maybe this is all a distraction. Maybe there’s a bigger plan.”

Darcy squints at her.

“Or maybe you, Agent Lewis, should just be content that you now know everything.”

The thing is: Darcy doesn’t feel like she does. Yes, she wants to know everything, but getting it served on a silver platter like this feels very wrong. She also has no way of knowing if Agent Unverzagt is really telling the truth.

She opens her mouth to disagree, but there’s commotion outside.

Agent Unverzagt smiles to herself. “That would be your husband, I presume.”

Seconds later the door is kicked open and Darcy sees two members of the STRIKE team barge in, guns drawn. She automatically falls to the ground to take cover. They survey the scene in front of them. Darcy stares at them with a mixture of gratitude and irritation. Sure, it’s nice to be rescued, but she feels that she needs a few more minutes with Agent Unverzagt to get more information.

To her surprise, Agent Unverzagt gets up from her chair, smile still on her face. And then everything happens really fast. She reaches behind her and pulls out a gun – from a holster on her belt, Darcy thinks distractedly.

“Gun!” one of the STRIKE members yells the same moment Darcy shouts, “No! Don’t!”

She doesn’t have any chance though. They both pull the trigger and Darcy watches in horror how Agent Unverzagt stumbles backwards at the impact of the bullets, how she lets her own gun fall to the floor, how she hits the wall with her back and then, leaning against the wall, leaving blood stains in her wake, slowly slumps to the ground.

~*~

When Darcy came to, she noticed that she was lying down. Her head and her right side still hurt like hell. It was almost dark. She looked around and tried to sit up, but realised with a sharp pain that she had been restrained with a strap across her chest. She couldn’t move her legs either.

She tried to look around and noticed that they were inside. There was a little light coming through a door a few feet away from her. She held her breath when she noticed a figure walking up to the door, standing in the doorframe for a few seconds before marching on.

A guard, Darcy thought.

Darcy had limited movement with her hands and began feeling around on the floor around her. Her hands bumped against something solid to her left, something solid and warm. She realised with relief that it must be Steve.

She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “Steve,” she whispered, but there was no answer. She slid her hand up to his wrist to find a pulse. She let out a sigh of relief when she found one, strong and steady. “Steve,” she whispered again but there was still no reaction from him.

She heard footsteps and then voices. She strained her ears to find out what they were saying and closed her eyes in order to not give away that she was awake.

Two persons, a man and a woman judging by their voices, stopped in the doorway.

“They’re still out,” the man said, his voice was deep and accented.

“Not for much longer, especially not the Captain,” the woman answered, her voice coloured by a German accent. Agent Unverzagt, Darcy realised. “We have to move quick.”

“We have to get rid of them,” the man said.

“No,” she objected immediately.

“They cost us billions. Our plan was thwarted. They deserve to die.”

“We can’t make Captain America disappear,” Agent Unverzagt said forcefully, “not at this point. We’re already having trouble keeping his disappearance from his colourful friends. We really don’t need the Avengers’ involvement in this when we’re so close.”

“What about the girl?”

“Too many questions about her too. She’s too closely associated with him now, even her disappearance would raise questions. Questions we cannot afford at this point. He married her to protect her, let them have that,” she sounded almost wistful. “We can use it to our advantage.”

“How?”

“We’ll make them forget the past two weeks. Get them away from here as fast as possible. And when they wake up, married, they’ll have to deal with that first. It’ll throw them off, at least for a little. Let’s just play it like they went AWOL for their honeymoon. We can certainly help that impression along. We’ve covered our tracks well enough.”

“You know from our experience with the asset that wipes are not permanent,” the man pointed out. “At some point, they will start to remember, he especially. And they’ll investigate.”

“We’ll have to be quicker the next time. And it doesn’t have to be forever. We just have to hold them off for a little while. We only need a few more weeks, a couple of months at most. Then we’re ready.”

“Ready for what?”

Agent Unverzagt sounded thoughtful. “To change the world.”

The two persons stepped into the room and turned on the light.

“We should give them a sedative,” she said. “It’ll buy us some time. And wipes really are much easier without the subject’s screams.”

“Sedatives won’t work on Captain America,” the man disagreed.

“We… have something that we’re sure will work, at least for a short time.”

Darcy heard the sound of drawers being opened and closed and of packaging being ripped open. She struggled against her restraints but couldn’t do anything.

“Oh, she’s awake,” the man said, sounding surprised.

“Not for much longer,” Agent Unverzagt said dismissively. “She’s holding his hand,” she added. “How adorable.”

She crouched down next to Darcy, took her arm, found a vein and injected her with what Darcy hoped was simply the sedative they’d mentioned earlier.

“Don’t worry,” Agent Unverzagt said almost soothingly, “you’ll probably never remember this.”

Darcy felt like she was dragged underwater, the pressure on her lungs became excruciating, and then darkness engulfed her.

~*~

Steve arrives seconds later, shield in hand. He pulls Darcy in a bone crushing hug and breathes deeply for a second or two before he lets her go. He looks her up and down. “Are you alright?” he asks in a voice full of concern.

Darcy only nods in response.

Steve looks around in the room and sees Agent Unverzagt slumped against the wall. He looks surprised, but doesn’t say anything. Instead he flags down another member of the STRIKE team to escort Darcy outside while they secure the rest of the compound. It’s early morning. She was kidnapped less than 12 hours ago.

The STRIKE member leaves her alone outside to head back in and Darcy moves across the open space in front of the building. She looks around and sees that she was in a non-descript office building in what looks like an industrial park.

Darcy sits down against the wall at the opposite of the building, her legs outstretched. She takes a sip from the bottle of water one of the first responders handed her and observes the SHIELD agents milling around. They’d swarmed the scene and are now awaiting further instructions.

She knows that she’ll probably sit in for a debrief for the rest of the day, that medical will want to examine her, but right now she just wants her peace and quiet and mull over what just happened. It all feels very weird. An unsatisfactory feeling has started to gnaw on her already.

Steve exits the compound ten minutes later and looks around. He spots her and stares at her before making his way over to her. Steve looks almost unbelievably perfect, even though he just came from a mission. He’s not even out of breath or sweaty. Darcy in contrast has dark streaks on her face, her hair is a sweaty mess and she can probably trash all the clothing she’s wearing right now because the indiscernible stains that will never come out.

Darcy only now realises that Steve is in civvies and didn’t change into his uniform. He carries his shield on a leather harness above his jacket. Only his hair is standing up at odd angles – because enough time has passed for it to grow so that it is almost at the length he had when they started their ill-fated assignment weeks ago. The beard, which he still hasn’t shaved off, is the last outward sign that something out of the ordinary happened to him. He’s almost back to being Captain America again.

Their four months anniversary is coming up.

He places the shield against the wall and sits down next to her. They don’t say anything for a while.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Steve finally says, bumping his shoulder into hers.

“Thanks for saving me.”

“You’re welcome.” Steve grins.

“You could’ve changed, you know,” Darcy can’t help but tease. “There was no rush, I had everything under control.”

“You did?”

“Yup. And a few more minutes with Agent Unverzagt might even have been helpful.”

“What did she tell you?” Steve asks.

“Everything – and nothing.”

Steve frowns at her, so Darcy recounts the entire conversation for him.

“I don’t know,” Darcy says at the end of her story. “This feels… too clean? Too perfect?”

“True,” Steve agrees. “That’s one of the first things I learned in the 21st century. It’s all a matter of grey areas. A real-life solution is rarely this easy.”

“It’s kind of suspicious…” Darcy muses. “The whole time since waking up I felt that our adversaries, this fraction inside SHIELD, they were pros. They might’ve made some mistakes but they were good. This set-up feels… amateurish. Like a sacrifice.”

“Maybe it was desperation…” Steve points out, even though he doesn’t sound convinced. “Maybe they saw that things were going downhill fast. I mean, we thwarted their plan back in Bolivia, that must’ve hurt their aspirations.”

“But the smart decision then is to take a step back and regroup… this… this was a losing game for them and they must’ve known.” Darcy catches a glance at Natasha barking orders. “They must’ve known the moment they took me that at least half of the Avengers would get involved.”

Steve thinks for a moment. “They managed to overpower one Avenger once, maybe they thought they could make it work. Maybe it was just plain old arrogance…”

“Arrogance could be an explanation, but still, it feels kind of stupid. In best Bond villain fashion she told me the whole evil plan. All my questions are answered now. But the answer feels all kinds of wrong…”

“Yeah, I get that,” Steve agrees.

“It’s like they wanted me… us to stop looking. And her final words… Maybe this is all a distraction. Maybe there’s a bigger plan…”

“Or maybe she was just messing with you,” Steve says quietly.

Darcy looks at him sharply. “Is that what you think?”

“No, but maybe you should take a step back and think about it with a little more distance. There’s no rush. You don’t have to solve everything today.”

“Okay.”

Steve looks at her in surprise, like he expected her to object.

“So what do we do now?” Darcy asks after a few minutes of companionable silence. It’s a loaded question. On paper this was what they had been looking forward to, what they had been working towards since they woke up. They are at the end of their own little mission. Everything is done. The perpetrators are dead or in custody. There is no need for them to stay married and their agreement was that they would get divorced once they knew everything.

That had been before their kiss.

Darcy had regretted putting a stop to whatever was between them almost immediately. Yes, there were the questions about whether they would even work as a normal, boring couple. Whether they could function without a mission, without the secrecy, the conspiracies and the lies. Whether their past would come back to haunt them. But a relationship always meant figuring things out together, putting yourself out there.

She likes Steve too much to wait for near certainty about everything in their past.

“You go to medical and then debrief,” Steve says a little too easily. “And if there’s a bigger conspiracy, we’ll find it.”

“No,” Darcy shakes her head, “I mean… with us.”

“Yeah that,” Steve leans his head back against the wall and stares into the distance. “You know, two days ago, when we kissed, and we weren’t sure if our feelings were normal or just Stockholm syndrome’s ugly cousin?”

“Yeah,” Darcy says quietly, dread settling in her stomach.

“It doesn’t matter,” he says with conviction. “Or it shouldn’t matter. I don’t want to be with you just because you’re there or because we work so well together or because of the excitement or because we have this secret between just the two of us.”

Darcy stares at him open-mouthed, her heart practically beating out of her chest, but he refuses to look at her.

“I mean,” he continues wistfully, “would’ve loved for us to be… you know, for it to happen like… somebody would’ve introduced us, and I would’ve obsessed a little about you but finally I would’ve gathered my courage and asked you out. And we would’ve gotten dinner and talked and joked. It would’ve been a nice evening. And then I would’ve kissed you on your doorstep afterwards. And we both would’ve felt a little awkward about it the next day and obsessed about who calls who. Natasha probably would’ve set me straight and it would’ve been entirely… normal… boring… happy. But that didn’t happen so we’ll work with what we have. I want to give whatever is between us a chance, regardless of how it all started out.” Steve finally meets her gaze. “Because if we wait for normal, we’ll probably wait forever.”

“Okay,” Darcy simply says.

“Okay?” Steve repeats, his face lighting up instantly.

“Yeah,” Darcy answers, unable to hide her growing smile, “it all sounds good to me. I mean, usually this would be the part where you kiss me, after such a declaration. But since you’re not getting on with the programme-” She hooks her fingers under the leather harness, yanks him closer and fits her lips to his. Steve quickly catches on. He buries a hand in her hair and sneaks one arm around her waist to pull her closer.

“Do you want to go on a real date tonight?” Darcy asks when they come up for air.

Steve grins at her. “Does that mean that we will stay married?”

“Yup,” Darcy nods, mirroring his grin, “but only for the spousal privilege.”

“And for the tax breaks.”

“And to see where it leads us.”

“You’re reading my mind.”

She pulls him close to kiss him again and she can feel Steve grin against her lips.

They are interrupted by Agent Sitwell a few moments later. “So the rumours are true,” he comments.

They break apart. Darcy looks sheepish, but Steve just grins and keeps his arm wrapped around her. “What would those be?” he asks.

“That your marriage turns out to be a love match after all.”

“It might be,” Darcy says.

“We’re working on that,” Steve adds.

Sitwell hums noncommittally. “Anyway, you both know why I’m here.”

“Debrief, right?” Darcy says.

Sitwell nods. “We have a car ready for you to get you to HQ. You’ll be more comfortable there and we want medical to check you, obviously. You can both go together,” there’s a ghost of a smile on his face. “but you’ll be debriefed separately. Your testimony, Agent Lewis, is important.”

Darcy sighs and nods.

They get up from the ground, Steve holding his hand out to Darcy. Once she’s standing next to him, he pulls her close again and wraps one arm around her waist. Darcy lets her head rest against his shoulder; she feels tired all of a sudden.

Steve looks at Sitwell and makes a sweeping gesture with his hand. “What are you doing about all this?” he asks him. “This was SHIELD. Agent Unverzagt and a dozen or so SHIELD agents were involved.”

Sitwell looks at them calculatingly. “Yes, we’re aware.”

“Are there going to be consequences?”

He nods. “Of course. With your permission, Agent Lewis, Captain Rogers, we’d like to build on what you’ve found out. Don’t worry,” he assures them, “Secretary Pierce has ordered a full investigation.”

 

~ one week later ~

Darcy gets woken up by Steve tiptoeing around in the bedroom early in the morning, getting ready for his morning run. He’s putting on his shirt and pants and lacing up his shoes in the darkness trying not to wake her. Darcy never accompanies him on his morning run but she’s usually an early riser like him and sometimes waits for him on the end of his run with breakfast. But she just returned late last night from a mission to bust up the international arms dealers she’d been tracking for the better part of three months and only fell into bed after one in the morning. In contrast to some people with super soldier serum, she needs a decent amount of sleep.

Sleep, at times, is still difficult for her. She has the occasional night terror but feels that it’s slowly fading. She’s still considering talking to a therapist, but hasn’t been able to fully make up her mind yet. She’ll get to it, eventually.

More memories have been returning too. They come in waves, mostly, and they don’t have a full picture yet. Sometimes, however, one of her memories triggers another memory in Steve when she tells him – or the other way around. Darcy remembers the two goons she took out in London. Steve remembers how she convinced him to visit Cuba. Darcy tells Steve how he broke her out of prison – twice, after which Steve is able to recall their conversation about the plan and their kiss at the street corner in Huanuni. So far, the memories hold up to what Agent Unverzagt told her.

Darcy has fully cooperated with SHIELD’s own internal investigation and has voiced her suspicions that there is more danger ahead, but so far nothing has come out of it. She and Steve have agreed to wait another week before they’ll start digging again.

Darcy turns on the lamp on the bedside table. “You know,” she says sleepily, “you’re not supposed to sneak out like a terrible one-night stand. Especially not when you’re basically newlywed.”

“Sorry,” Steve sounds apologetic, “I didn’t mean to wake you. I’m going for a run and I’ll be back before you know it.”

“You’re going to troll people that are slower than you,” Darcy teases him good-naturedly. “Maybe you should say hi to that one guy that’s always up at the same time. I bet he’s military, too.”

Steve chuckles quietly. “Are you trying to get rid of me already? We’re basically newlywed.”

“You need more friends, Steve. Non-SHIELD friends.”

“I’ll see what I can do about that,” he grins, leading Darcy to roll her eyes at him.

“Bring me home some breakfast at least.”

He walks to her side of the bed, bends down and gives her a soft kiss. “Will do,” he promises before he leaves.

Darcy tries to go back to sleep, but half an hour later her phone starts ringing.

“’lo?” she answers without looking at the caller ID.

“Is Steve there?” Nat asks without preamble.

Darcy immediately knows that Steve won’t bring home breakfast – that he won’t be home for a while for that matter.

Natasha mostly calls when Darcy is not supposed to know. SHIELD has policies in place for spouses of active duty combatants that are SHIELD agents as well. As his wife, Darcy has the right to be informed about Steve’s whereabouts, the anticipated length of his mission, and the threat level. But SHIELD put these in place for people that are not Avengers, for couples that don’t violate the fraternization policy, which is why more often than not it’s difficult to get the information via official channels or from Steve, who’s almost always whisked away without the chance to inform her. So Natasha circumvents it by calling her to ask after Steve, lets Darcy know unofficially that he’ll be on a mission, and tells her more details if she has any.

“No,” she answers, “he’s out running. Took his phone with him too.”

“Great. We have a mission,” Nat announces, “that’s all I have so far.”

“He was supposed to bring me back breakfast,” Darcy complains good-naturedly.

“Fat chance,” Natasha shoots back. “I’m going to pick him up at the curb. Don’t expect the husband home for dinner.”

_~fin~_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said when I started posting this fic that this is going to be my last Steve/Darcy longform and a year later that still holds true. It’s been great. Thanks for having me, Darcyland!
> 
> Here’s one more end note:  
> The fire at the Rotterdam oil finery that Darcy mentions was three years after the events of this story, but I couldn’t resist :D  
> [Shell's Pernis refinery fire buoys oil product prices](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shell-refinery-outages/shells-pernis-refinery-fire-buoys-oil-product-prices-idUSKBN1AG1XF)

**Author's Note:**

> [Follow me on tumblr if you want to](https://amernaisnowhere.tumblr.com/). I'm trying to get back into the tumblr game.


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